The Reconstruction of Girlhood: Negotiating Empowerment, Subjectivity, and Resistance

This article examines the social reproduction of girlhood and womanhood through the intergenerational transmission of gender norms, empowerment discourses, and forms of resistance among four generations of women in Turkey—Baby Boomers, Gen X, Gen Y, and Gen Z. Drawing upon feminist theory and social reproduction perspectives, it explores how empowerment, subjectivation, and freedom are negotiated within the shifting boundaries of patriarchy. Based on qualitative in-depth interviews analyzed through MAXQDA, the study identifies cyclical patterns in the construction of female subjectivity, where agency and constraint coexist in dynamic tension. The findings reveal that empowerment is not a linear process but a continuously redefined negotiation between structural inequalities and personal transformation. Education, digitalization, and evolving parenting ideologies emerge as crucial domains where gendered expectations are both reinforced and reimagined. While earlier generations equate empowerment with economic independence, younger women emphasize psychological autonomy, self-confidence, and digital visibility as new markers of agency. Furthermore, intergenerational dialogues expose both continuity and rupture in gender ideology—revealing how maternal narratives of sacrifice evolve into daughters’ discourses of self-realization. Ultimately, the study argues that girlhood functions as an active site of ideological negotiation and resistance rather than a passive stage of socialization, highlighting the cyclical, affective, and transformative nature of gender relations within contemporary Turkish society.