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In the chapter that follows, as in those that have preceded it, on group formations in adolescence, I shall restrict myself to phenomena of a definitely contemporary character. Here too I want to deal with them as essentially episodes within the framework of American society—immediate and even vivid forms of expressions of psychologically meaningful forces, yet so time-bound that, even within the relatively short span of these observations, they have appeared, dis appeared, and changed in form and in significance.
To a certain extent, this holds true for the social acts of girls, no less than it did for the adolescent boys with whom we dealt earlier. For adolescent girls, however, their social involvement does not always constitute, in the end, the successful end act of a chain of developmental events. Here the biological difference often finds its most powerful—and unfortunately sometimes disastrous—expression.
In any case, the fight for “equal rights for women” now seems somewhat antiquated in its goals. The long and often quite hard struggle that was carried on by both men and women of past generations did succeed in preparing society —at least in the advanced countries—for the attainment by women of social equality. But we ought not forget that the