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Ruth Alexander The Girl Problem

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The Girl Problem Thought Paper Throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, many young women in America, particularly New York, longed for freedom and pleasure. They were on a search for their identity and desired to be able to express themselves freely. The actions of the young girls were not understood by the rest of society and were seen as rebellious. This emerging change in the ideas of womanhood was labeled “the girl problem”. In Ruth M. Alexander’s The Girl Problem, the young women were incarcerated as delinquents because they violated the standards of womanhood and moral standards, as well as rebelling against their parents and displaying disobedience. The female youths in Alexander’s study were seen as delinquents as they …show more content…

Many of the young women had a subordinate social status and were seen as others in society as the majority were African American or from immigrant families (15). This new behavior escalated the judgment and the desire of society to reform them and turn them into good, respectable women. The women often came from bad home lives and went to the streets in search of a life different from what their family could provide (17). Young women were “fascinated with stylish dress” and wanted material things (22). As women in the working class with low paying jobs, they did not have a lot of leisure time to engage in these activities and longed for the freedom. They also did not want to turn their hard earned wages over to their family anymore. These young women challenged the family-centered ideas of the past and did not want to pitch in to help the family. The parents of the young girls also did not understand the behavior of their daughters. Parents being strict and telling them no pushed the girls to take part in the urban youth culture even more. Sophie Polentz’s father “disapproved of her new associates” and she ended up leaving to be on her own because she grew to resent him (17). Alexander states that “familial condemnation and conflict” helped lead to the young girls being incarcerated (25). Ilene Sterling’s mother asked for her daughter to be incarcerated at …show more content…

This was the main reason why society was so appalled with the behavior of the young women. Society feared the worst and that the girls were engaging in prostitution and other immoral activities. These women expressed their sexual identities and families and authorities feared the changing culture of womanhood. The women longed to create a life for themselves and relied on the streets and other youth to help them. This was also the most significant reason why reformers wanted to help the women and gain public support for reform. The women in the reformatories were seen as immoral, but were truly striving to find freedom and express

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