Alexandria Digital Research Library

Smart Cookies: The Gendered Spaces of Labor, Citizenship, and Nationalism in the Girl Scout Cookie Sale

Author:
Goerisch, Denise Marie
Degree Grantor:
University of California, Santa Barbara. Geography, Joint Program SDSU
Degree Supervisor:
Kate Swanson and Stuart Aitken
Place of Publication:
[Santa Barbara, Calif.]
Publisher:
University of California, Santa Barbara
Creation Date:
2013
Issued Date:
2013
Topics:
American Studies, Gender Studies, and Geography
Keywords:
Girl Scouts
Citizenship
Emotional Labor
Girlhood
Nationalism
Education
Genres:
Online resources and Dissertations, Academic
Dissertation:
Ph.D.--University of California, Santa Barbara, 2013
Description:

Each year thousands of Girl Scouts sell cookies to friends family, and neighbors to raise money for their troops and local councils. Lauded as the largest girl-led financial literacy program, the annual Girl Scout cookie sale not only teaches girls important business and leadership skills but also prepares girls for their roles as American women in a neoliberal and capitalist society. Girls learn the importance of 'giving' through multiple spaces of the cookie sale. Scouts learn to give and care for others under the veil of market capitalism, neoliberalism, and American nationalism, which seeks to reproduce hegemonic gender roles regarding labor, education, and citizenship. Based on a two-year study on the Girl Scout cookie sale, using qualitative methods and rooted in feminist methodologies, this project seeks to understand how 'spaces of giving' emerge in the cookie sale and how these spaces shape social constructions of gender, citizenship, and national identity.

Physical Description:
1 online resource (181 pages)
Format:
Text
Collection(s):
UCSB electronic theses and dissertations
ARK:
ark:/48907/f3f47m3n
ISBN:
9781303538674
Catalog System Number:
990040924500203776
Rights:
Inc.icon only.dark In Copyright
Copyright Holder:
Denise Goerisch
Access: This item is restricted to on-campus access only. Please check our FAQs or contact UCSB Library staff if you need additional assistance.