"My First Best Love": Women's Writing on College Friendships 1880–1905
type: CreativeWork
description: In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, American society encouraged strong bonds between women. As separate sphere ideology took hold, highly-structured female relationships were created and maintained through shared rituals, language, and expectations. The resulting friendships enabled women to build a range of emotional ties with one another. At the same time, an expanding array of gender segregated educational institutions further promoted homosocial networks. Women’s college students built community through their shared experience inhabiting a collective space, forging social circles as well as one-on-one intimate relationships. This thesis examines women’s experiences of friendship within the college setting between 1880 and 1905, with a specific focus on how they characterized and found meaning in these connections. Through a close reading of a set of correspondence and a published novel, I argue that female friendships enabled women to find solace, companionship, and intimacy. These sources provide examples of writing for both public and private audiences, written with different intentions and expectations. When read side-by-side, however, they show the centrality of women’s friendship among women’s college students and suggest some of the ways that the college environment nurtured a common experience. I demonstrate that women’s writing for other women allowed them to express the importance of these intimate connections and the centrality of these relationships in their lives.
abstract: In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, American society encouraged strong bonds between women. As separate sphere ideology took hold, highly-structured female relationships were created and maintained through shared rituals, language, and expectations. The resulting friendships enabled women to build a range of emotional ties with one another. At the same time, an expanding array of gender segregated educational institutions further promoted homosocial networks. Women’s college students built community through their shared experience inhabiting a collective space, forging social circles as well as one-on-one intimate relationships. This thesis examines women’s experiences of friendship within the college setting between 1880 and 1905, with a specific focus on how they characterized and found meaning in these connections. Through a close reading of a set of correspondence and a published novel, I argue that female friendships enabled women to find solace, companionship, and intimacy. These sources provide examples of writing for both public and private audiences, written with different intentions and expectations. When read side-by-side, however, they show the centrality of women’s friendship among women’s college students and suggest some of the ways that the college environment nurtured a common experience. I demonstrate that women’s writing for other women allowed them to express the importance of these intimate connections and the centrality of these relationships in their lives.
author: Kayser-Hirsh, Alyssa J.
keywords: Other Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, United States History, Women's History, Women's Studies, friendship, women's colleges, community, queer, Smith College, intimacy
date published: 2024-02-01T08:00:00Z
date modified: 2026-07-24T02:00:13Z
provider: City University of New York - Graduate Center
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: The Graduate School and University Center of The City University of New York