An American Girl And Her Four Years In A Boys College
By Olive Anderson
An American Girl And Her Four Years In A Boys College describes one woman’s experience of tremendous social change, as she joins the first group of female scholars at a top American university.
Although some American women earned degrees in the 1830s, the more prestigious colleges continued to exclude female students for decades longer. For example, the University of Michigan – one of the oldest universities in the United States – did not admit women until 1870. An American Girl, and Her Four Years in a Boys’ College was written by its first female graduates, Olive San Louie Anderson, and published under the pseudonym SOLA in 1878.
The story is narrated by Wilhelmine Elliot, who enrols at the fictional University of Ortonville. An American Girl, and Her Four Years in a Boys’ College describes the challenge that the narrator and her female colleagues faced as they blazed a trail for women in higher education. The book places Wilhelmine’s experience firmly in its social context, taking in her relationships with family, friends, and fellow students, the broader women’s movement, and evolving moral values. It also explores the reactions of male faculty members and students.
This is an important book and required reading for anyone with an interest in the history of education and/or the evolution of women’s rights. It is also a fascinating read for anyone who simply enjoys books about lives very different to our own.
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