A review of the literature on girls' involvement with street gangs traces their roles from the last century to the present. This discussion emphasizes that the youth gang is a male phenomenon; while evidence indicates that girls' gang activities and autonomy have changed in recent years, these have occurred as a result of shifts in the nature of their relationship to the male group. A more visible sisterhood has appeared within gangs in which worth extends beyond simple sexual attractiveness, but girls still want to succeed in male terms. An overview of the daily lives of lower class girls and women in New York highlights their very circumscribed set of future possibilities. Three biographies are presented: Connie, from a Manhattan biker gang called the Sandman; Weeza from the Sex Boys and Girls, a large black and Hispanic gang; and Sun-Africa from the Five Percent Nation, a religious and cultural gang whose avowed aim is to teach young blacks the correct ways of Islamic life. In its concluding analysis, the book argues that the gang is not a counterculture, but a microcosm of American society. The gang did not provide these girls with an escape from the problems they faced -- their female role could not be circumvented, their instability remained and was magnified, and they remained trapped in poverty. Footnotes, photographs and index.