Buildings for Bluestockings. The Architecture and Social History of Women's Colleges in Late Victorian England

"Vickery's book, which includes floor plans and eight pages in color, examines the intimate relationship between a Victorian institution intended solely for women and the architectural theories of the period. In doing so, she sheds light on the role of the founders, such as Emily Davies at Girton, their goals for their colleges and the pressure which a reluctant and skeptical society placed upon them. Reformers in women's education were sometimes radical feminists, but more often the women and men who were involved were modest in their approach, arguing for little change in the status of women and veiling their ambitions for women's progress under a restrained and traditional rhetoric. This conservative approach conditioned the built environment of the colleges and is an important aspect of nineteenth-century British feminism." "Central to this book is the connection between the attitudes of Victorian society towards the higher education of women and the built environment. Feminist architectural historians and anthropologists are just beginning to explore these connections, and Vickery's book, with its focus on a gender-specific building type, offers insight into the ways in which the values of a society are encoded into the environment in which we live and work. It is therefore of interest not only to architectural historians, but to feminists, social historians, and anyone interested in the history of the collegiate environment."