The Education of the Southern Belle: Higher Education and Student Socialization in the Antebellum South

George Perez
HPSC 106
Professor Johnson

Book Review
The Education of the Southern Belle
By Christie Anne Farnham

The Education of the Southern Belle, was actually written by a graduate from a southern
women’s college. She has writing the book in order to give us an understanding of the
history behind women’s college institutions in the south, where they primarily originated.
The first half of the book, part 1, talks about the academic life of women’s colleges while
the second half, part 2, talks about the world of the female school.

In part 1, we learn the history behind women’s colleges and the academics of these
colleges. Although women’s education was not a very popular idea, and in-fact, was
actually considered to be absurd in the early 1800’s, the idea eventually became more
accepted. “By the 1850’s the idea that men and women were equal in intellectual gifts but
that those gifts found different expression was widely held,” (Farnham pg. 16). Colleges
for women opened throughout the South and even in the North during the 1800’s. These
institutions offered courses in comparable to those taught in male colleges. Usually the
curriculum would be divided into the study of classical languages in the first two years
and then the study of other subjects in the final two years. Male colleges would often
require both Latin and Greek, while female colleges would require Latin and some would
offer but not require Greek (Farnham pg. 25). But in other areas such as mathematics,
the female colleges often “used the same textbooks as those of the best men’s colleges,
although their instruction seldom included calculus,” (Farnham pg. 25). And in the area
of science, “female colleges compared favorably with those for males,” (Farnham pg.
26). Female colleges were a product of the South’s views on womanhood and were a
result of many decades worth of advances in female education (Farnham 32).

As far as the curricula goes, many female colleges found it easier to borrow the same
curricula from that of male colleges. “Expropriation of the male curricula was made
easier because it was education in the liberal arts rather than the professions. The purpose
of the liberal arts ‘to discipline and furnish’ the mind, develop character, and enrich
life by encouraging future learning was sufficiently general to permit educators to
take possession of the male curricula almost in its entirety,” (Farnham pg. 69). Since
education in the US was textbook centered, females would learn from the same authors
as the males; Education in the 19th century was more standardized since the same
authors were often being used to teach across many colleges (Farnham pg. 69). Even in
a conservative Victorian society, “anatomy was more commonly offered to women than
men,” (Farnham pg 84).

In part 2, we learn about the culture of female colleges. Besides having a very good
academic program that was comparable to those in male colleges, female colleges often
taught social manners and had activities that were different than those of male colleges.

There was a cultural emphasis placed on having proper manners and behaving like
a proper lady. “Polite culture was a core component of the educational process, thus
institutions required their students to entertain from time to time in the parlor,” (Farnham
pg. 126). Because women married very young in the South, as young as 14 and 15,
female colleges were very strict about communications between their students and the
outside world. They feared that too many students would get married and be in jeopardy
of leaving school. Some colleges had all outside correspondence filtered through the
principal’s offices. There were even strict rules of dress, for example, “Extravagant
dress was discouraged as educators attempted to link simplicity to the ideal of the lady,”
(Farnham pg. 134). Because any slight hint of scandal had disastrous consequences for
female colleges, often “classrooms dining facilities, public areas such as parlors and
libraries, and faculty and student quarters were thus housed in one building to facilitate
close supervision of students,” (Farnham pg. 143). It also helped ease the minds of
parents who sent their girls to these colleges. One fascinating development was that of
Sororities, groups of women who gathered in Greek-letter societies. They were primarily
formed due to the “self-improvement” and they served as models to the rest of the student
body. These Sororities valued Christian principles and had their own elaborate rituals,
secret passwords, mottos, and grips (Farnham pg. 154).

Although friendships and sororities could provide emotional support for students, many
found that they preferred “romantic friendships” with other students (Farnham pg. 155).
Love was idealized by Victorian society, in all forms. “Men who were best friends
characterized their love for each other as higher than any love for women, rather than
as a substitute for it, on the grounds that it was a spiritual, not physical relationship,”
(Farnham pg. 155). These close and emotionally intense friendships became common
since girls would often spend most of the year away from home and have no access to
men. There were also pageants held at these colleges that were very popular among
the students. They would often select a queen, one that symbolized “society’s ideal of
femininity,” (Farnham pg. 169).

I was surprised to find that women in the 1800’s had colleges that were catered to their
educational advancement. I did not know that they taught from the same textbooks and
often had more access to certain subjects such as anatomy than the male colleges. I did
expect there to be some strictness in terms of the rules governing female etiquette and
behavior, especially with the opposite sex. Overall, it was very interesting to see how the
initial response to female colleges had drastically changed over a 50 year span. And what
once was the norm to be married and be a student at a female college became discouraged
and colleges sought to keep their students single out of fear that they would drop out
eventually.

Farnham, Christie. The Education of the Southern Belle: Higher Education and Student
Socialization in the Antebellum South. New York: New York UP, 1994. Print.