Description
At what age do girls gain the maturity to make sexual choices? This question provokes especially vexed debates in India, where early marriage is a widespread practice. India has served as a focal problem site in NGO campaigns and intergovernmental conferences setting age standards for sexual maturity. Over the last century, the country shifted the legal age of marriage from twelve, among the lowest in the world, to eighteen, at the high end of the global spectrum.
About the Author
Ashwini Tambe is an associate professor of women's studies at the University of Maryland College Park, where she is also affiliate faculty in history and Asian American studies. She is the author of Codes of Misconduct: Regulating Prostitution in Late Colonial Bombay.
Reviews
"Ashwini Tambe's Defining Girlhood in India is eloquently written, empirically grounded, and persuasively argued." --Journal of Women's History
"By employing a transnational feminist lens to investigate sexual maturity laws that informed the idea of girlhood, this book represents a significant contribution to the field of girlhood studies." --Contemporary South Asia
"Defining Girlhood weaves an otherwise rich and extensive tale of the 'girl child' as a rapidly morphing but always potent signifier in Indian and international politics." --Journal of Asian Studies
"Defining Girlhood in India emerges as a well-timed and much-needed genealogy of the girl child as a political subject. . . . Beautifully written and organized." --Progress in Development Studies
Book Information
ISBN 9780252084560
Author Ashwini Tambe
Format Paperback
Page Count 218
Imprint University of Illinois Press
Publisher University of Illinois Press
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 152mm * 15mm
Ashwini Tambe illuminates the ideas that shaped such shifts: how the concept of adolescence as a sheltered phase led to delaying both marriage and legal adulthood; how the imperative of population control influenced laws on marriage age; and how imperial moral hierarchies between nations provoked defensive postures within India. Tambe's transnational feminist approach to legal history shows how intergovernmental debates influenced Indian laws and how expert discourses in India changed UN terminology about girls. Ultimately, the well-meaning focus on child marriage became tethered less to the well-being of girls themselves and more to parents' interests, population control targets, and the preservation of national reputation.
About the Author
Ashwini Tambe is an associate professor of women's studies at the University of Maryland College Park, where she is also affiliate faculty in history and Asian American studies. She is the author of Codes of Misconduct: Regulating Prostitution in Late Colonial Bombay.
Reviews
"Ashwini Tambe's Defining Girlhood in India is eloquently written, empirically grounded, and persuasively argued." --Journal of Women's History
"By employing a transnational feminist lens to investigate sexual maturity laws that informed the idea of girlhood, this book represents a significant contribution to the field of girlhood studies." --Contemporary South Asia
"Defining Girlhood weaves an otherwise rich and extensive tale of the 'girl child' as a rapidly morphing but always potent signifier in Indian and international politics." --Journal of Asian Studies
"Defining Girlhood in India emerges as a well-timed and much-needed genealogy of the girl child as a political subject. . . . Beautifully written and organized." --Progress in Development Studies
Book Information
ISBN 9780252084560
Author Ashwini Tambe
Format Paperback
Page Count 218
Imprint University of Illinois Press
Publisher University of Illinois Press
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 152mm * 15mm
