Girls' Studies

This article explores the critical link between G20 financial contributions and the need for reform in economic mechanisms that support women's empowerment. Despite progress in gender equity, women in the global South continue to face significant financial disparities. Using statistical analysis, this study examines the impact of existing G20 financial frameworks on women. It captures a historical review of the G20's gender equity initiatives, highlighting trends and gaps in policy commitments and funding, and an analysis of the barriers women face in accessing financial resources, including credit and entrepreneurship support, with insights into digital finance. Case studies from the global South illustrate women's intersectional challenges, considering factors like race, gender and socioeconomic status. The article provides actionable recommendations for inclusive reforms within G20 financial policies, advocating for transformative governance models that prioritise gender-sensitive strategies and global collaboration. This research aims to inform policymakers, scholars and advocates, contributing to the development of inclusive economic systems and advancing global gender equity.

"Sulla nave eravamo quasi tutte vergini. Avevamo i capelli lunghi e neri e i piedi piatti e larghi, e non eravamo molto alte. Alcune di noi erano cresciute solo a pappa di riso e avevano le gambe un po' storte, e alcune di noi avevano appena quattordici anni ed erano ancora bambine". Inizia così il bellissimo libro di Julie Otsuka, Venivamo tutte per mare, edito da Bollati Boringhieri (2012).

This article examines migration flows to neoextractivist enclaves within the framework of necropolitics and the political ecology of migration. It explores how degraded territories, shaped by illegal mining, human trafficking, and the sex trade, function as both forces of expulsion and attraction. The theoretical framework integrates concepts of accumulation by dispossession and extractive biopolitics to understand how state control, labor precarization, and violence create differentiated mobility regimes, particularly affecting migrant women. The study focuses on Madre de Dios in the Peruvian Amazon, a region characterized by environmental degradation and territorial control through illicit economies, despite the state's claims of biodiversity protection. Using qualitative methods, including document analysis and interviews with local actors, the research reveals that historical configurations of territorial exploitation influence migration patterns in these enclaves. The article contributes to the political ecology of migration by demonstrating how extractive economies and structural inequalities shape migration flows in necropolitical contexts.

This study challenges the longstanding interpretation of the protagonist in the ballet Giselle as a "Wili"-a vengeful, sexually unfulfilled spirit. The traditional depiction of "sexual fragility" is fundamentally problematic, reflecting a pervasive flaw in the portrayal of women as love-obsessed "crazed" figures within both Gothic literature and classical dance. This analysis argues that existing scholarship minimizes the ballet's symbolic nature by overlooking the underlying spiritual dynamics that lead to the spiritualization and transformation of Giselle. Drawing on original research into Théophile Gautier's libretto and Victor Hugo's poem, this work applies a Gothic lens to reframe Giselle's trajectory not as a descent into insanity, but as a process of metaphysical elevation and redemption. Through a close reading of the "Mad Scene," the death sequence, and the second-act emergence of the Wilis, I argue that Giselle emerges as a figure that transcends the depiction of sexual fragility and madness as an embodiment of forgiveness, thereby redefining feminine power through spiritual transcendence. By reframing Giselle through this lens, this work reveals how the ballet challenges dominant narratives of female madness, melancholy, and sexuality; positioning redemption-not revenge-as the central thematic force.

Whether it be in labors of sex, marriage, or caregiving, Filipina’s are a dominant force of global economy, yet their media presence remains ornamental at best. In this piece I examine how Filipinas are seen, and why those perceptions exist, in a historical and contemporaneous context. Additionally, I uncover effects media representations have on reproducing colonial ideologies about Filipino women and how we – as consumers – can maneuver with these cultural productions.

Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya (KGBV), which was started in 2004, seeks to improve
educational access of girls in educationally backward blocks in marginalized communities via residential schooling. In this research work, the researchers will consider the effects of the scheme on the Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER) of girls in upper primary education (Classes VI-VIII) as it relates to the enrolment patterns and empirical findings of the scheme. The analysis indicates that there is a positive tendency in the GER of girls at the upper primary. To determine KGBV's effect on GER, a paired sample t-test was conducted, indicating that KGBV interventions contributed to an average 62.9% GER increase. The findings highlight the role of KGBV in creating equity and retention and empowering women.

The research intends to investigate Barbie’s iconography and the ideal of femininity her image had come to culturally signify at the intersection with the feminist discourse, to ultimately attempt to determine whether or not she could be considered a feminist icon or the longest-running pinkwashed product of late capitalism. To achieve this, this dissertation will engage with the contradictory implications of her image, examining the full reach of the Barbie’s aesthetic power as one of the most potent icons of American popular culture, and analyse how her public perception has shifted with time, adapting to the American political and cultural climate, especially in relation to to key concepts of the intersectional feminist discourse, such as the body as a cultural construction, the male gaze, gender performativity and the power dynamics implicit in the processes of representation.

This thesis was partially inspired by my personal experience of attending Emma Willard School, an all-girls boarding school in Troy, New York. This thesis examines the social, cultural and political history of the Queen Bee figure in the popular culture of the twentieth and twenty first centuries. The Queen Bee is a fluid anti-heroine however, a feminist character who while she tears down others around her to succeed is also genuine with relatable emotions. Here, I explore the 2000’s media culture’s fascination with the relational aggression and adolescent womanhood and its depiction of girls caught up in complex networks of social positions ranging from the Queen Bee to Bystander and Target. This thesis outlines the history of the Queen Bee figure from its emergence in 1949 through perhaps its most popular iteration in the early twentyfirst century. In the early twenty-first century, the Queen Bee persona has become a contested terrain, at once negative and positive, much in the wa...

The Motif of Hymen–Funus (Wedding–Funeral) and Greek Mourning Rituals in Jan Kochanowski’s Treny VI and VII.
The article is divided into two parts. The first discusses topoi in Greek and Roman epitaphs of children, especially those commemorating deceased girls and focusing on their premature death. Here, the focus is, above all, on the motif of wedding rites replaced with mourning rites and their characteristic rituals being combined (hymen–funus, i.e. wedding-funeral topos). This topos permeated the works of early modern authors who commemorated their deceased children using models from the Classical literature, adopting a manner of describing this death in terms of ancient religion and the mourning customs of those times (examples are taken from the works of Giovanni Pontano and Angelo Poliziano). The second part of the text shows how these motifs and, especially, the ideas they express are reflected in Jan Kochanowski’s Laments. Two motifs came under particular scrutiny, one from Lament VI (the song of the daughter saying goodbye to her mother) and Lament VII (browsing through the deceased’s garments put into the grave and placing gifts into the coffin). The analysis results dispel former scholars’ doubts regarding the sources of these fragments, especially of Lament VI. They also make it possible not only to read other meanings introduced by Kochanowski through the references to ancient literature and rituals but also to note the different nature of the cycle devoted to his daughter Orszula. Here, in particular, the role of the child heroine differs significantly from Classical and Renaissance models of poetry dedicated to deceased women. Although the poet evokes the topic of wedding obligatory in this type of work, it was not a wedding he expected from his daughter; he attributed to her the merits that, in the light of Classical and Modern culture and literature, only a son could bring to a father. Orszula was to become an heiress and continuator of her father’s work, a family celebrity, and bring merits to Slavic-speaking peoples. Thus Kochanowski reverses gender roles, ascribing to the girl a life scenario and merits that, in the culture of his times, could only be expected from a man.