"And this is the habitation of learning! Our jazz bands,
our saxophone
orchestras, our whirling giddy parties, our "busts,"
our proms, our hops,
our moving pictures, our schedules which make way for
"second shows," our
joyrides, all these and many other things gather into
a noisy rushing rabble
and barish learning. They may have, they do have, their
proper place but
just now they occupy an unduly large place in student
interest..."
- Marion Leroy Burton, President of The University of
Michigan 1920-1925
Although a university serves as an educational institution,
"college life"
encompasses much more than what one learns in a classroom.
To many students
a social life is just as important, if not more important,
to the learning
and growing that one experiences in a "college" experiences.
The 1920's were
a time in which a small percentage of the American population
attended
universities across the United States. The campus environment,
including the
University of Michigan, became a world of its own. However,
the university
atmosphere was still a microcosm of the United States
at the time. Although
men and women shared the campus and were both able to
obtain an education,
their lives were extremely different. There was an ideal
to be upheld by the
"college man," however an ideal was upheld for the women.
Women and men had
different and special activities and events planned for
them and were
allowed to do and forbidden from doing certain things.
Thus, although the
men and women shared an isolated environment, the culture
of a "college
social life" created distinct gender roles.
Using the "Yearbook of Michigan Cartoons," a collection
of poems and
cartoons published in 1920 by students of the University
of Michigan, as a
foundation and starting point, this project explores
the social lives and
roles of the average Ann Arbor college student in the
early 1920's. The
poems and cartoons touch on the issue of gender roles
comparing the lives of
college women to the idea of the "college man" as they
explore the ideals
and beliefs of the creators of the yearbook. The poems
and cartoons are then
supported and supplemented by other publications of the
time.
Table of Contents:
"Yearbook of Michigan Cartoons"
Gender Equality in the 1920's at the University if Michigan
A Different Look at Gender Roles
University of Michigan Greek Scene