Finishing school

A finishing school focuses on teaching young women social graces and upper-class cultural rites as a preparation for entry into society.^[1][2][3] The name reflects the fact that it follows ordinary school and is intended to complete a young woman's education by providing classes primarily on deportment, etiquette, and other non-academic subjects. The school may offer an intensive course, or a one-year programme. In the United States, a finishing school is sometimes called a charm school.

Graeme Donald claims that the educational ladies' salons of the late 19th century led to the formal finishing institutions common in Switzerland around that time.^[4] At the schools' peak, thousands of wealthy young women were sent to one of the dozens of finishing schools available.^[5] The primary goals of such institutions were to teach students the skills necessary to attract a good husband, and to become interesting socialites and wives.^[5]

The 1960s marked the decline of the finishing schools worldwide.^[5] This decline can be attributed to the shifting conceptions of women's role in society, to succession issues within the typically family-run schools, and, sometimes, to commercial pressures driven by the high value of the properties that the schools occupied.^[5] The 1990s saw a revival of the finishing school, although the business model was radically altered.^[5]