Guiding Modern Girls: Girlhood, Empire, and Internationalism in the 1920s and 1930s

by Kristine Alexander

Across the British empire and the world, the 1920s and 1930s were a time of unprecedented social and cultural change. Girls and young women were at the heart of many of these shifts. Out of this milieu, Girl Guiding emerged as a response to modern concerns about gender, race, class, and social instability. In this book, Kristine Alexander analyzes the ways in which Guiding sought to mold young people in England, Canada, and India. It is a fascinating account that connects the histories of girlhood, internationalism, and empire, while asking how girls and young women understood and responded to Guiding's attempts to lead them toward a "useful" feminine future.

Genres: History

316 pages, Hardcover

Published November 16, 2017

Reviews

[Kathleen Garber · Rating 4 out of 5]

I asked to review this book because I’ve been involved with Girl Guides of Canada in one way or another for the last 32 years. I heard other Girl Guide leaders talking about it so I searched it out.

My first impressions were that the book was a lot more intellectual than I first expected. However I thoroughly enjoyed it and learned a lot. I know Guiding in the 90s and 2000s mostly. Although we certainly learn about Guiding’s early days we didn’t get quite as thorough as this book does. So that’s why I still learned new things.

The book is well researched with 42 pages of notes and a 23 page bibliography. It’s important to note that the author is not a Girl Guide member. She works at the University of Lethbridge (Canada) as an assistant professor of history. She is also Canada Research Chair in Child and Youth Studies. However she does an amazing job of capturing what early Guiding was like.

Something that shocked me and is important to note is that there were Girl Guide companies IN residential schools. Right now the news is full of stories about unmarked graves and even mass graves being unearthed at residential schools.

The Guide movement, through its companies in residential, day and industrial schools, was also part of this broader effort to eradicate Indigenous cultures in Canada. But, as Mary Jane McCallum shows, numerous First Nations girls used Guiding as “a means to practice ‘culturally related behaviours’ and … to continue distinct Aboriginal traditions.” Like the Six Nations girls who earned prizes for their needlework, many Indigenous Guides used the movement’s emphasis on handicrafts and “Indian lore” to create goods that they would also have produced in their own cultural environments. As McCallum argues, “Native and Inuit girls inverted and distorted [the movement’s assimilatory] aims, using the Girl Guide organization to renew rather than dissolve their traditions; and as a resource that supported rather than transformed their own distinct cultures.
pg 133

Final Thoughts
Overall this is a well thought out study of Girl Guiding in Canada, England and India. You will need silence and concentration to read it but it’s not boring. I learned a lot and I’m glad I read it. It’s not for every Girl Guide member of course. If you are interested in the history of Guiding and how it related to what was going on in the world, it’s a recommended read.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

[Dasha · Rating 4 out of 5]

In Guiding Modern Girls: Girlhood, Empire, and Internationalism in the 1920s and 1930s (2017), Alexander analyzes gender, racial, and class hierarchies in Guiding’s chapters in Britain, Canada, and India during the interwar years. Alexander utilizes the Girl Guides ideology and principles reflected adults’ anxieties in which modernity threatened to undermine Victorian and Edwardian gender, race, and imperial traditions. Thus, the Guiding principles focused on highlighting conservative values such as training for domesticity, motherhood, and marriage. At the same time, the “modern girl” was also reflected by the Guiding’s use of camping which engaged with masculine-femininity, self-education, and political training. Nonetheless, such progressive ideas were contained within the conservative idea that these girls would marry, have children, and reside within the private sphere. Alexander also highlights how the Guiding organizations provided a degree of flexibility for members. Young girls took what they wanted from their participation and negotiated their experiences, such as staying up late and pillow fighting while camping. Alexander also shows how international sisterhood and citizenship, under the metaphor of the empire as a family, existed uneasily beside theories and ideas of racial hierarchies. For example, Indigenous girls in Canada required extra domestic and moral training to make them citizens in order to make up for their inherent deficit in character.

[Meagan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Want to get mad? As a feminist, ooohhhhhhh....this book really pissed me off!! Not the author's fault! Brilliant writing, really. But the subject matter. The more I read, the madder I got! It's absolutely horrifying to look back and see how brainwashed men wanted women to be. To see how they literally groomed girls to be domestic slaves, and to put the burden of patriotism and loyalty on top of it. 'If girls really loved their country, they would just shut up and learn how to be such a great housewife, she can fix a broken man'. Ughhhh...
Great book. Makes me mad. But great book.

Five stars for a one star topic!

[Erin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very well written and insightful!