Constructions of girls’ bodies in Israeli academic literature: a critical scoping review

This scoping review offers an opportunity to examine the spread and reclaiming of feminist theoretical tenets in a central domain of youth studies. We examined critically the development of the academic literature on Israeli girls and their bodies, based on a girlhood studies perspective. Data consisted of the 255 academic works (articles, book chapters and graduate theses) published on the topic since Israel’s inception. The analysed variables included: decade, language, discipline, topic, focus population, approach and genre. The findings outline a gradual increase overtime of works on the bodies of girls, dominated by health-related topics and quantitative methodologies, alongside a relatively small number of studies on sub-populations of girls and based on a critical approach. The discussion situates the trends found regarding study populations, topics and approaches in the global and local literature on girls, highlighting signs of an emerging girlhood studies perspective in the reviewed literature in the past two decades.