berghahn New York · Oxford

Contents

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments

Introduction: Collective Urgency: Networks of Girls and Young Women Taking Action
Catherine Vanner

Part I: By Girls and Young Women

Chapter 1. Chalk Back: The Girl and Youth-Led Street Art Movement to #StopStreetHarassment
Natasha Harris-Harb and Sophie Sandberg

Chapter 2. Hopeful, Harmless, and Heroic: Figuring the Girl Activist as Global Savior
Jessica K. Taft

Chapter 3. Young Feminists Leading Change: Gender Transformative Education in Action
Ashlee Burnett, Dennis Glasgow, and Maryjacob Okwuosa

Chapter 4. “Because There Are Young Women Behind Me:” Learning from the Testimonios of Young Undocumented Women Advocates
Carolina Silva

Chapter 5. Sakai Magara: Activist Girl of Early Twentieth Century Japan
Barbara Hartley

Part II: For Girls and Young Women

Chapter 6. “Unsilencing the Girls:” Fostering a Practice of Schoolgirls’ Agentic Roles and Participation in Decision-Making in Education in Oyo State, Nigeria
Edem Dorothy Ossai, Oluwadamilola Adedayo, Ewaoluwa Raufu, and Busayo Adebayo

Chapter 7. Photovoice and Cartography as Activist Tools:Mining for Solutions with Disabled Girls of Color in One U.S. High School
Amanda L. Miller and Jennifer A. Kurth

Chapter 8. Towards a Fairer Future: An Activist Model of Black Girl Leadership
Courtney Cook

Part III: With Girls and Young Women

Chapter 9. Be Well and Stay Safe:Facebook, Community Activism and Inuit Girls in the time of COVID
Julia Ussak, Haily May Ussak, Jennica Alhda Barcial, and Marnina Gonick

Chapter 10. Negotiating Girl-led Advocacy: Addressing Early and Forced Marriage in South Africa
Sadiyya Haffejee, Astrid Treffry-Goatley, Lisa Wiebesiek, and Nkonzo Mkhize

Chapter 11. Reflections on Expanding Girls’ Political Capital at the United Nations
Emily Bent

Chapter 12. Trans Girls’ Activism on YouTube and Instagram:A Radical Media Engagement of Mothers and Daughters
Lucas R. Platero, Iolanda Tortajada, and Cilia Willem

Chapter 13. “Speak With Girls, Not for Them:” Supporting Girls’ Action Against Rape Culture
Alexe Bernier and Sarah Winstanley

Chapter 14. The Inheritance of Activism: Does Social Capital Shape Women’s Lives?
Supriya Baily, Gloria Wang, and Elisabeth Scotto-Lavino

Conclusion: Acting Together
Catherine Vanner

Index

Girls Take Action

Activism Networks by, for, and with Girls and Young Women

Edited by Catherine Vanner

270 pages, 12 ills., bibliog., index

ISBN 978-1-80539-710-6 Hb Published (January 2025)

eISBN 978-1-80539-712-0
web ISBN 978-1-80539-712-0

Details

The repression of the rights of girls and women is continuously threatened in a wide range of global cultural contexts. From the rise in laws restricting reproductive freedom to the growth in essentialist ideas about gender and the backlash to the #MeToo movement, the challenges facing girls and young women are as diverse as the activism networks established to address them. Girls Take Action shines light on the myriad ways girls and young women are exercising agency in the face of injustice, considering especially the role of community and collaboration in fostering activism networks and ultimately a more transnational understanding of girlhood.

Catherine Vanner is an Assistant Professor and the VPRI Research Chair for the Faculty of Education at the University of Windsor. Previously, she worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow at McGill University and an Education Advisor at Plan International Canada and the Canadian International Development Agency. Specializing in the use of qualitative and participatory methods to examine the relationship between education, gender, and violence, her recent publications include Teaching Peace and Conflict: The Multiple Roles of School Textbooks in Peacebuilding (Springer, 2022), co-edited with Spogmai Akseer and Thursica Kovinthan Levi, and journal articles in Girlhood Studies, Gender & Education, and Pedagogy, Culture & Society.

Series: Volume 8, Transnational Girlhoods

Subject: Gender Studies and Sexuality Political and Economic Anthropology Sociology

Area:

LC: HQ799.2.P6 G566 2025

BISAC: SOC032000 SOCIAL SCIENCE/Gender Studies; SOC072000 SOCIAL SCIENCE/Activism & Social Justice; SOC002010 SOCIAL SCIENCE/Anthropology/Cultural & Social