- In From the Margins and Back Again - 25 Years of Policy: Young People, Sexuality and Gender
Billie Oliver
- In 1960 the Albemarle Report observed that "much thought" would need to be given to ways of attracting girls into youth organisations. However, it was the continuing domination of boys and men in youth work settings during the 1970s that "opened up opportunities for feminist and women-centred practice".
- By the late 1970s the strength of the girls' work movement was such that the National Association of Youth Clubs (NAYC) was pressured into establishing a Girls Work Unit. The National Organisation for Work with Girls and Young Women was formed and provided information and resources, support and training for work with girls.
- In 1982 the Thompson Report appeared to accept the argument for girls' work as mainstream when it urged the youth service to take the needs of girls and young women seriously and to tackle and challenge ingrained attitudes and unconscious assumptions. It appeared as though girls' work was beginning to gain a sense of excitement.
- In 1987 the Girls' Work Unit within the NAYC was suddenly closed. Set up only a few years earlier this unit had been seen as crucial to the promotion and communication of gender issues in youth work. The marginalisation of young women's needs continued throughout the 1990s as the work was continuously dogged by challenges about the neglect of boys and men - often on the grounds that class is a more salient form of oppression than gender.
Billie Oliver is at the University of the West of England.
- For more information on or to subscribe to Youth & Policy visit The National Youth Agency website at www.nya.org.uk, email sales@nya.org.uk or telephone: 0116 242 7427. Guidelines for contributors available on request
