For being a pretty short book (just over 350 pages), College Girls: Bluestockings, Sex Kittens, and Coeds, Then and Now by Lynn Peril took me several weeks to read. Mostly because my social life became very busy, but probably also because, while the book was very good, it made me sleepy as I read it.

College Girls is more of a textbook for a women’s studies class. It goes through the history of from when women began to go to college until the present day. I actually learned a lot about the history of women because the book didn’t only focus on the college life but clothing, social activities (such as dating), sex life, and what women did after they graduated.

This is definitely a book I would recommend women’s studies classes to take a look at (or if you’re really interested in the history of women). Even if only one or two chapters were read, it is definitely an eye opener to how women’s lives have changed over the past 200 years. From reading through this book, I decided that if I had grown up when society thought it was better if women stayed at home rather than went to school, I would be a bluestocking (or a woman who went to college anyway). Even as it became more accepting, women’s positions didn’t change much. They were still expected to keep up the home rather than work after obtaining their education.

So whether you’re in a women’s studies class or just interested in women’s history this is a book I recommend.

Grade: A