The education of girls in three acts: a study on the social configurations of femininity

Abstract

This research aims to investigate the factors that build and support a model of education for girls, which is believed to be supported by socially diffused patterns of femininity. This research will focus specifically on analyzing three books that are directed to girls, or that depict their education at a particular historical moment, such as Meninas Exemplares by Condessa de Ségur; As Meninas by Lygia Fagundes Telles and O Maravilhoso Livro das Meninas by Rosemary Davidson and Sarah Vine. The analysis will be made from the studies of gender and sexuality and the studies of childhood that problematize childhood as a sociological construction. As a result, it is expected to punctuate the main models and ideals that refer to girls' education, in the same way, to problematize the way in which these assumptions can/should be revised and redefined in contemporaneity.