Starting with the figure of the bold, boisterous girl in the mid-19th century and ending with the 'girl power' movement of the 1990's, Tomboys is the first full-length critical study of this gender-bending code of female conduct. Michelle Abate uncovers the origins, charts the trajectory, and traces the literary and cultural transformations that the concept of 'tomboy' has undergone in the United States. Abate focuses on literature including Louisa May Alcott's Little Women and Carson McCuller