{"id":85,"date":"2023-04-19T17:11:00","date_gmt":"2023-04-19T21:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/19thcenturylesbiandesire\/?p=85"},"modified":"2023-04-30T23:49:32","modified_gmt":"2023-05-01T03:49:32","slug":"early-womens-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/19thcenturylesbiandesire\/early-womens-education\/","title":{"rendered":"Early Women’s Education"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Women’s Colleges in the Late 19th Century<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Smith College, 1880s<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

With the rise of emphasis on female education in the 19th century, single-sex institutions sprouted up across the United States.1<\/a><\/sup> Prestigious women\u2019s colleges, such as Mount Holyoke, Radcliffe, Bryn Mawr, Barnard, Vassar, Wellesley, and Smith College, became a place for usually middle-class2<\/a><\/sup> white women3<\/a><\/sup> to study and live together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These communities of young women at places like Smith often became very tight-knit, especially in the early years of the college\u2019s formation.4<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Living and studying at these single-sex institutions, young women were isolated from men their age and free from immediate pressures to find a husband, allowing them to focus on their education and other desires.5<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For some, these desires manifested in crushes formed on their female friends and peers. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries at Smith, this concept of \u201ccrushes\u201d had by women on other women in their lives was far less stigmatized than it would soon become by the start of World War I, even viewed as a natural part of a young woman’s development into adulthood.6<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, it was expected that she settle down and start a family after college, and that these desires toward other women would dissipate.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/a>
From the memorabilia book of Elizabeth Rusk, Class of 1916, “Add for Dental Paste”<\/em>7<\/a><\/sup><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

References<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
    \n
  1. Barbara Miller Solomon, In the Company of Educated Women\u202f: A History of Women and Higher Education in America. (<\/em>Yale University Press, 1985). 47<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Barbara Miller Solomon, In the Company of Educated Women\u202f: A History of Women and Higher Education in America. (<\/em>Yale University Press, 1985). 64-66<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. Barbara Miller Solomon, In the Company of Educated Women\u202f: A History of Women and Higher Education in America. (<\/em>Yale University Press, 1985). 76.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. Barbara Miller Solomon, In the Company of Educated Women\u202f: A History of Women and Higher Education in America. (<\/em>Yale University Press, 1985). 99.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  5. Barbara Miller Solomon, In the Company of Educated Women\u202f: A History of Women and Higher Education in America. (<\/em>Yale University Press, 1985). 100.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  6. Barbara Miller Solomon, In the Company of Educated Women\u202f: A History of Women and Higher Education in America. (<\/em>Yale University Press, 1985). 99-100.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  7. Page from Elizabeth Katharine Rusk\u2019s memorabilia book, Early 20th Century, CA-MS-01018, Box 1894.7, Classes of 1911-1920 records, Smith College Archives, Northampton, Massachusetts.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Women’s Colleges in the Late 19th Century With the rise of emphasis on female education in the 19th century, single-sex institutions sprouted up across the United States.1 Prestigious women\u2019s colleges, such as Mount Holyoke, Radcliffe, Bryn Mawr, Barnard, Vassar, Wellesley, and Smith College, became a place for usually middle-class2 white women3 to study and live […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4296,"featured_media":86,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-85","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/19thcenturylesbiandesire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/19thcenturylesbiandesire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/19thcenturylesbiandesire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/19thcenturylesbiandesire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4296"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/19thcenturylesbiandesire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/19thcenturylesbiandesire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":288,"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/19thcenturylesbiandesire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85\/revisions\/288"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/19thcenturylesbiandesire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/19thcenturylesbiandesire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/19thcenturylesbiandesire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/19thcenturylesbiandesire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}