Resumo
This research aimed to investigate the factors that build and support a model of
education for girls, which is indicated to be supported by socially diffused patterns of
femininity. The investigation was based on the analysis of three books that are directed
to girls, and that portrays their education in a certain historical moment, namely: As
Meninas Exemplares by Condessa de Ségur; The Great Big Glorious Book for Girls by
Rosemary Davidson and Sarah Vine and As Meninas by Lygia Fagundes Telles. The
analysis was made from the intersection of gender and sexuality studies with childhood
studies that problematizes childhood as a sociological construction. As a result, the
main models and ideals that refer to girls' education were pointed out, questioning the way in which these assumptions can/should be revised and reinterpreted in
contemporary times.