Sarah Blanding and the Modern College Woman

This chapter highlights the changes in UK women students in a post–World War I environment during the 1920s. It introduces Dean of Women Sarah Blanding, a protégé of Frances Jewell McVey, who followed McVey as Dean of Women and would later become the first woman president of Vassar College. In response to an ever-expanding social culture on campus, Blanding introduced new rules and regulations for women students, both on the campus and beyond; and she enforced them vigorously. The chapter also examines the demise of women’s intercollegiate athletics and its impact on women students. This decade brought an even greater emphasis on social status and relationships between women and men students, and it saw the rise of the “beauty queen” as a fixture on the college campus.