First women admitted to degrees at the University of Oxford
In 1920, the University of Oxford admitted women to degrees for the first time during the Michaelmas term. The conferrals took place at the Sheldonian Theatre on 14 October,[1] 26 October,[2] 29 October,[3] 30 October[4] and 13 November.[5] That same year, on 7 October, women also became eligible for admission as full members of the university.[6]
Before 1920, it is estimated that around 4,000 women studied at Oxford since the opening of the university's first women's colleges in 1879.[7] One graduate was Annie Rogers, who took undergraduate exams in 1875 and 1877 and was finally given a degree in 1920, when she was 64 years old.[8] The last survivor of the first conferral ceremony was Constance Savery, who died at the age of 101 in 1999.[9]
History
[edit]![A group photo of young Victorian women.](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0f/Student_group_photo_of_the_first_female_students_at_Oxford%2C_1879.jpg/250px-Student_group_photo_of_the_first_female_students_at_Oxford%2C_1879.jpg)
For the first six centuries of its existence, the University of Oxford was only open to male students. In 1873, Annie Rogers sat for the Oxford school examination and came out on top, automatically qualifying for an exhibition at Balliol or Worcester College. However, when the university realised she was female, they rescinded her offer and her place was given to the boy who had come sixth in the tests. Balliol College gave her volumes of Homer as a consolation prize.[8] In response to the controversy caused by Rogers' story, the university passed a statute in 1875 allowing its Delegacy for Local Examinations to set examinations for women at roughly undergraduate level;[10] Rogers was able to sit these examinations, giving her the equivalent of first-class marks in Classics in 1877 and Ancient History in 1879.[11]
In 1873 a committee was formed to organise "Lectures for Ladies" by university dons in Oxford. It was also possible to take tests and use the university's Bodleian Library.[12]: 233–234 In June 1878, an Association for the Education of Women (AEW) was formed in Oxford, including members of the "Lectures for Ladies", to organise courses of lectures leading to examinations.[12]: 247–248 Because of religious differences, two halls of residence were opened in 1879 by separate committees: the Anglican Lady Margaret Hall and the nondenominational Somerville Hall[12]: 245–248 From 1879, there were also a number of students not living in halls, who were given the name of the Society of Oxford Home-Students in 1898 (later renamed to St Anne's College in 1952).[13] Two more women's colleges would open before 1900: St Hugh's Hall in 1886 and St Hilda's Hall in 1893.[12]: 250 Over time, the halls and the home students took on their own tutors and adopted the name college.[13] In 1910 the halls and the home students became "recognised societies" of the university and in 1920 "societies of women students".[14] From 1927 until 1957 there was a quota system which limited the number of students admitted to the women's societies.[15]: 233–234 They were only accepted as full colleges of the university in 1959.[16]
At first, women students took examinations organised by the Delegacy for Local Examinations.[17] Eventually, they were allowed to sit for university examinations for B.A. courses through the delegacy, which awarded a certificate of completion rather than a degree.[18] By 1895, Oxford, the University of Cambridge and Trinity College Dublin were the only universities in the United Kingdom to deny women degrees. The first vote to give Oxford women degrees in 1896 was unsuccessful.[16] In response to the vote failure, the AEW began to issue a diploma listing the exams a student had passed at the end of her studies.[19] For a brief period in the early 1900s, some women received ad eundem degrees from Trinity College, which began admitting women in 1904 and had made this arrangement with the Oxbridge universities.[20] These women became known as "steamboat ladies" and, between 1904 and 1907 (when the arrangement ended), Trinity College granted degrees to 720 women educated at Oxbridge.[21]
"Oxford has recognised that she has daughters, and some day she will give to them, as to her sons, the right to bear her name and wear her gown."
In November 1910, the University of Oxford established the Delegacy for Women Students. This was a huge step towards women being granted full membership, not least because the statute which established the Delegacy acknowledged women as Oxford members for the first time as well as the five women's colleges, with the University assuming formal control and supervision over them.[22]
It would be another ten years before women were finally admitted as full members. The first matriculation ceremony was held in the Divinity School on 7 October 1920. The first degree ceremony followed at the Sheldonian Theatre on 14 October 1920. Between 1920 and 1921, a total of 1,159 women were matriculated.[16]
Degree conferrals in 1920 and 1921
[edit]Ordinary degrees
[edit]![Black and white image of women wearing graduation robes, on their way to the degree conferral ceremony](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/95/First_women_Degree_Oxford_students_1920.jpg/220px-First_women_Degree_Oxford_students_1920.jpg)
Degrees by decree
[edit]![A group photo of five women in silk gowns used in graduation ceremonies.](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/81/1920_Honorary_Degrees_Oxford_women%27s_college_principals.jpg/220px-1920_Honorary_Degrees_Oxford_women%27s_college_principals.jpg)
References
[edit]- ^ "Degrees conferred at Oxford". Yorkshire Post. 15 October 1920.
- ^ "MA Degree for Seventeen Women Tutors". Yorkshire Post. 27 October 1920.
- ^ "University Intelligence: Oxford–Thursday. Conferment of Degrees". Yorkshire Post. 29 October 1920.
- ^ "Oxford–Saturday. Degrees for Women". Yorkshire Post. 1 November 1920.
- ^ "University Intelligence: Oxford–Saturday. Conferment of Degrees". Yorkshire Post. 15 November 1920.
- ^ Handbook to the University of Oxford. Oxford University Press. 1965. p. 43. OCLC 123244725.
- ^ "'They couldn't go on the river with a man on their own' – the changing lives of Oxford's female students". BBC. Retrieved 19 July 2024.
- ^ a b "Annie Rogers (1856–1937)". St. Anne's College, Oxford. Retrieved 19 July 2024.
- ^ "Constance Savery". Bethlehem Books. Retrieved 12 August 2024.
- ^ a b Lannon, Frances (30 October 2008). "Her Oxford". Times Higher Education.
- ^ Garnett, Jane; Whyte, William. "Women Making History: the centenary". University of Oxford. Retrieved 21 July 2024.
- ^ a b c d Brock, Michael G.; Curthoys, Mark C., eds. (2000). "10 'In Oxford but…not of Oxford': The Women's Colleges". The History of the University of Oxford, Vol. 7: Nineteenth-Century Oxford, Part 2. Oxford University Press. pp. 237–308. ISBN 978-0-19-951017-7.
- ^ a b "The University of Oxford's Women's Colleges". University of Oxford. Retrieved 21 July 2024.
- ^ "Somerville College, Woodstock Road". Kelly's Directory of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire (15th ed.). Kelly's Directories. 1939. p. 206. OCLC 1114787950.
- ^ Harrison, Brian, ed. (2000). "13 Women". The History of the University of Oxford: Volume 8: The Twentieth Century. Oxford University Press. pp. 237–308. ISBN 978-0-19-822974-2.
- ^ a b c d "A Short History of Women's Education at the University of Oxford". University of Oxford. 14 October 2020. Retrieved 21 July 2024.
- ^ Howarth, Janet. "From Lectures for Ladies to University Examination". University of Oxford.
- ^ "1894–1896". University of Oxford. Retrieved 12 August 2024.
- ^ "1896 Towards Degrees for Women". Somerville College, Oxford. Retrieved 12 August 2024.
- ^ "Trinity Hall's Steamboat Ladies". Trinity News. 14 March 2012. Archived from the original on 12 December 2013. Retrieved 21 July 2024.
- ^ Parkes, Susan M. (2004). A Danger To The Men?: A History of Women in Trinity College, Dublin 1904–2004. Lilliput Press. ISBN 978-1-84351-040-6.
- ^ "1910: The Delegacy for Women Students was established". University of Oxford. Education and Activism: Women at Oxford, 1878–1920.
- ^ "Bebb [married name Thomson], Gwyneth Marjory". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/101944. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- ^ Penniman, T. K. (March 1976). "Obituary: Beatrice Mary Blackwood". Oceania. 46 (3): 235–237. doi:10.1002/j.1834-4461.1976.tb01244.x. JSTOR 40330243.
- ^ Bostridge, Mark; Berry, Paul (2016). Vera Brittain: A Life. Little, Brown Book Group. p. 15. ISBN 978-0-349-00854-7. Retrieved 2 June 2021.
- ^ a b Bostridge, Mark (15 March 2012). "The story of the friendship between Winifred Holtby and Vera Brittain". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 6 June 2021.
- ^ Jack Adrian, "Broster, D(orothy) K(athleen)", in David Pringle, ed., St. James Guide to Horror, Ghost & Gothic Writers. London: St. James Press, 1998, pp. 95–97. ISBN 978-1-55862-206-7
- ^ Meller, Helen (7 March 2022). "Hilda Cashmore: Pioneering social worker who founded Barton Hill Settlement". The Bristol Cable. Retrieved 15 June 2023.
- ^ "Cashmore, Hilda". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/52725. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- ^ "Clapham, Olive Catherine [married name Miles (1898–1973)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/odnb/9780198614128.013.112040. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- ^ Derry, Caroline (10 May 2021). "Olive Clapham – 'first woman barrister'". Law Gazette. Retrieved 15 March 2024.
- ^ "The Lives and Loves of Muriel St Clare Byrne". Somerville College, Oxford. Retrieved 11 February 2019.
- ^ Thomas, Gillian (1992). A Position to Command Respect: Women and the Eleventh Britannica. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-0-810-82567-3.
- ^ Clarke, Frances (2009). "Clarke, Maud Violet". In McGuire, James; Quinn, James (eds.). Dictionary of Irish Biography. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-57098-236-1.
- ^ Newmann, Kate. "The Dictionary of Ulster Biography". New Ulster Biography. Retrieved 29 July 2018.
- ^ "Coltman [née Todd], Constance Mary". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/50351. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- ^ Murray, Janet Horowitz; Stark, Myra (6 January 2017). The Englishwoman's Review of Social and Industrial Questions: 1909–1910. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-315-39492-3.
- ^ "Craven, Cicely Musgrave". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/odnb/9780198614128.013.369106. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- ^ "Helen Darbishire" (PDF). The British Academy. Retrieved 14 August 2024.
- ^ "Helen Darbishire (1881–1961) – Literary scholar, Principal of Somerville 1931–1945". Somerville College, Oxford. Retrieved 14 August 2024.
- ^ Darwall-Smith, Robin; Wollenberg, Susan (2023). Music in Twentieth-Century Oxford: New Directions. Boydell Press. p. 184–185. ISBN 978-1-78327-724-7.
- ^ "Mann, Julia de Lacy". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/62347. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- ^ Harte, N. B. (1986). "Julia de Lacy Mann, 1891–1985: A Memoir". Textile History. 17: 3–6. doi:10.1179/004049686793701006.
- ^ "Deneke, Helena Clara". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/56938. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- ^ Curtis, Mavis (2015). The WI: A Centenary History. Amberley Publishing. pp. 35–6. ISBN 978-1-4456-1704-6.
- ^ "Auvergne Doherty". Inner Temple. Retrieved 19 July 2024.
- ^ "Violet Mary Toy received a medal from Emmeline Pankhurst for joining the hunger strike in Holloway Prison". St Hilda's College, Oxford. Retrieved 14 August 2024.
- ^ "Scarborough man tells mother's suffragette story; A Scarborough man has told the astonishing tale of how his mother joined the suffragettes and was sent to prison for smashing the home secretary's window". The Scarborough News. 6 February 2018.
- ^ "October 1914: Vera Brittain Arrives for the New Academic Year at Oxford". Somerville College, Oxford. 2017. Archived from the original on 24 October 2016. Retrieved 8 March 2017.
- ^ "Dame Joan Evans" (PDF). St. Hugh's College, Oxford. February 2009.
- ^ "Forrester [née McColl], Isobel Margaret Stewart". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/66407. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- ^ "file P2/37 – Llythyrau oddi wrth Flora Forster". National Library of Wales (in Welsh). Retrieved 19 August 2020.
- ^ Abbott, Mary (2003). Family Affairs: A History of the Family in 20th Century England. Psychology Press. p. 12. ISBN 978-0-415-14587-9.
- ^ "Correspondence of Charis Frankenburg". Bodleian Archives & Manuscripts. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 9 January 2021.
- ^ Petch, Alison. "Barbara Freire-Marreco (Mrs Robert Aitken)". Pitt Rivers Museum. Archived from the original on 15 August 2011. Retrieved 7 June 2011.
- ^ Brindley, Giles (2006). Oxford: Crime, Death and Debauchery. Sutton. p. 153. ISBN 978-0-7509-3820-4.
- ^ "Graham, Rose". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/45655. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- ^ "Gwyer, Barbara Elizabeth". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/52032. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- ^ Dimand, Robert William; Dimand, Mary Ann; Forget, Evelyn L. (2000). A Biographical Dictionary of Women Economists. Edward Elgar. p. 212. ISBN 978-1-84376-142-6.
- ^ "Holtby, Winifred". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/37563. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- ^ "Jaeger, Muriel". The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. 20 September 2016. Retrieved 13 November 2016.
- ^ "The Margaret Kennedy Collection" (PDF). University of Oxford. Retrieved 19 July 2024.
- ^ "University Intelligence". The Times. 26 June 1912. pp. 6, 12.
- ^ Law, Cheryl (2000). Women: A Modern Political Dictionary. I.B. Tauris. p. 94. ISBN 978-1-86064-502-0.
- ^ "Chapter 5: Women at the British School at Athens". Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies. 54 (Supplement_111): 115–139. 1 April 2011. doi:10.1111/j.2041-5370.2011.tb00052.x. ISSN 0076-0730.
- ^ Gill, David W. J. (2002). "'The passion of hazard': women at the British School at Athens before the First World War". The Annual of the British School at Athens. 97: 494. doi:10.1017/S0068245400017482. ISSN 0068-2454. S2CID 162002147.
- ^ "A Woman at Oxford: Vera Brittain's Somerville Experience," Historical Studies in Education/Revue d'Histoire de L'Education, vol 3, no 1, (Spring, 1991), p 18
- ^ Greer, Julie (2016) [October 2014]. "Learning from linked lives". University of Southampton. p. 95. Retrieved 12 August 2024.
- ^ "Oakeley, Hilda Diana". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/48502. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- ^ "Odlum, Doris Maude". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/60919. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- ^ Glenday, Nonita; Mary, Price (1976). Clifton High School 1877–1977. Taylor Brothers. OCLC 779055717.
- ^ "Pickford, Mary Ada". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/50058. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- ^ "Mary "Polly" Winearls Porter". TrowelBlazers. Retrieved 7 December 2017.
- ^ Rayner-Canham, M. (2008). Chemistry Was Their Life: Pioneer British Women Chemists, 1880–1949. Imperial College Press. ISBN 978-1-86094-986-9.
- ^ "Prescott, Hilda Frances Margaret". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/odnb/9780198614128.013.102437. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- ^ "Rice, Marcia Alice". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/52727. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- ^ Tucker, Nicholas (18 March 1999). "Obituary: Constance Savery". The Independent.
- ^ "Sayers [married name Fleming], Dorothy Leigh". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/35966. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- ^ Reynolds, Barbara (1993). Dorothy L. Sayers: Her Life and Soul. St. Martin's Press. pp. 97–98. ISBN 978-0-312-09787-5.
- ^ "First Oxford Women Graduates – Historic Ceremony". The Times. 15 October 1920. p. 7.
- ^ Richardson, Joanna (1974). Enid Starkie: A Biography. Macmillan Publishers. ISBN 978-0-7195-2849-1.
- ^ "Dr Enid Starkie (1897–1970) – A. F. XXIV (4): 439 – French Studies". fs.oxfordjournals.org. Archived from the original on 9 July 2012. Retrieved 27 January 2022.
- ^ Sharp, Donna (2008). The Maynard School: A Celebration of 350 Years 1658 – 2008. Maynard School Publishing. p. 120. ISBN 978-0-9560034-0-9.
- ^ Lewis, Clare; Moshenska, Gabriel (2023). "8 Margerie Venables Taylor (1881–1963): An Unsung Heroine of Roman Britain?". Life-Writing in the History of Archaeology. UCL Press. pp. 213–232. ISBN 978-1-80008-450-6.
- ^ Ainsworth, G. C.; Webster, John (1996). Brief Biographies of British Mycologists (PDF). British Mycological Society. pp. 166–167. ISBN 978-0-9527704-0-4. OCLC 37448227.
- ^ "Wakefield, Elsie Maud (1886-1972)". Global Plants. Retrieved 15 September 2018.
- ^ Knutson, Tanja (June 2005). "Breastfeeding Pioneer: Cicely Williams" (PDF). LaLeche League International (Asia). Archived from the original (PDF) on 31 March 2022.
- ^ Stanton, Jennifer (16 July 1992). "Obituary: Dr Cicely Williams". The Independent. Retrieved 28 July 2012.
- ^ "Dr Ivy Williams". Inner Temple. Retrieved 19 July 2024.
- ^ Bell, Jo; Hershman, Tania; Holland, Ailsa (2021). On This Day She: Putting Women Back into History One Day at a Time. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 146. ISBN 978-1-78946-271-5. OCLC 1250378425.
- ^ "Willis, Olive Margaret". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/52264. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- ^ "Ady, Cecilia Mary". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/40619. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- ^ "Bruce, Alice Moore". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/51854. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- ^ Halsey, A. H., ed. (1976). Traditions of Social Policy: Essays in Honour of Violet Butler. Basil Blackwell. p. 46. ISBN 978-0-631-17130-0. Retrieved 25 July 2021.
- ^ Peretz, Elizabeth. "C Violet Butler, Progressive Thinker and Social Reformer, 1884-1982" (PDF). Department of Social Policy and Intervention. Archived from the original on 15 September 2019. Retrieved 24 July 2021.
- ^ "Papers of the Jamison Family". University of Manchester. Retrieved 28 November 2014.
- ^ "Jex-Blake, Henrietta". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/48441. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- ^ "Johnson [née Todd], Bertha Jane". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/37611. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- ^ "Jourdain, Eleanor Frances". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/48446. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- ^ Haines, Catherine M. C. (2001). International Women in Science: A Biographical Dictionary to 1950. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-1-57607-090-1.
- ^ Berg, Maxine (October 1989). "The First Women Economic Historians: The LSE Connection" (PDF). University of Warwick. Retrieved 12 August 2024.
- ^ "Lodge, Eleanor Constance". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/34582. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- ^ a b c Brittain, Vera (1960). The Women at Oxford. George G. Harrap & Co. OCLC 2662513.
- ^ "Miss Winifred Moberly". The Times. No. 44863. 10 April 1928. p. 13.
- ^ "Moberly, Winifred Horsbrugh". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/48456. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- ^ "Penrose, Dame Emily". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/35466. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- ^ "Obituary: Prof. Mildred K. Pope". The Manchester Guardian. 18 September 1956.
- ^ "Pope, Mildred Katherine". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/41136. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- ^ "Spens, Janet". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/53800. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- ^ "Wardale, Edith Elizabeth". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/52739. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
Further reading
[edit]Articles
[edit]- Sultan, Mena (8 October 2019). "October 1920: Women granted full membership of Oxford University". The Guardian.
Books
[edit]- Brittain, Vera (1960). The Women At Oxford: A Fragment Of History. Macmillan Publishers. ISBN 978-1-02-117522-9.
- Batson, Judy G. (2008). Her Oxford. Vanderbilt University Press. ISBN 978-0-8265-1610-7.