Bored bluestockings and frivolous flirts: dynamics of gender and the experiences of the first female students of Queen's College Cork, 1879–1910.

The campaign for women's access to higher education in Ireland in the late-nineteenth century was understated, characterised by committees, middle class concerns and wrangling over legislation. The earliest female university graduates in Ireland were demure, hardworking and performatively feminine. This paper examines how the campaign for women's higher education in Ireland, and the first female third level students in Ireland, responded to contemporary ideology regarding gender roles. It suggests that the first female university students in Ireland were engaged in a delicate balancing act, seeking access to previously forbidden male-dominated spaces, yet simultaneously attempting to preserve their femininity and respect decorum. This paper will also analyse the gender geography of third level institutions, and the way in which the separate spheres ideology was mapped onto universities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]