Issues are being raised and talked about in recent times such as: Can-Do Girls and At-Risk Girls, Sports and Masculinities, Families and Fortune etc… Whereas in the past, this was a rare occurrence, in recent times this is a commonplace. ‘Popular culture, public policy, academic inquiry, and the private sector are now interested in young women in ways that are quite unprecedented (Harris, 2004, p. 13)’. An important issue for all sociologists, and for all of society, is why these patterns of change have occurred. In this essay I will critically examine the issues being raised, what the author is discussing, evidence the author/s use, how the articles have prompted me to think differently and the implications that each explanation carries with it.
Anita Harris focuses on young womanhood and whether or not they are ‘can-do girls’ or ‘at risk’ girls. For example, ‘the ‘girls with the world at their feet’ are identifiable by their commitment to exceptional careers and career planning, their belief in their capacity to invent themselves and succeed, and their display of a consumer lifestyle (Harris, p. 14)’. Anita discusses the large differences between successful women and unsuccessful women who throw their lives away due to a lack of commitment and capability. Youth researchers Barbara Schneider and David Stevenson describe the ‘at risk girls’ as having ‘a lack of a sense of power or opportunity, and inappropriate consumption behaviours, for example, of drugs or alcohol’. Focus on young womanhood was a rare thought until the early 1990’s. Anita analyses these young woman from both sides of the discussion.
Authors David Rowe and Jim McKay focus their discussion on sports and masculinities as there have been broad changes over time. For example, ‘since the late nineteenth century, sport has been one of the most significant sites for defining and elaborating ideologies of male supremacy in Western societies (Rowe, McKay, 2003, p. 200-201)’. This topic...