Belonging and Wanting: Meanings of Social Class Background for Women's Constructions of their College Experiences

Abstract

Data from 193 women who attended Smith College in the 1960s show that the women retrospectively represented college quite differently depending on their class background. Themes of both social segregation and academic unpreparedness were evident among the women from working‐ and middle‐class families, while themes of a continuation of family tradition were evident among women from upper‐class families. Interview data from seven women who graduated from Radcliffe in 1964 suggested that a sense of who belonged and who did not was keenly felt even by women from middle‐class backgrounds, and was also noticed by women from upper‐class backgrounds. It is noted that class plays a large role in constructing the markers that define “belongingness” on elite college campuses.

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