October’s Anniversary for women at Oxford
106 YEARS AGO, OXFORD FINALLY GAVE WOMEN THEIR DEGREES!
In October 1920, the Sheldonian Theatre witnessed, for the first time in Oxford University's long history, women awarded degrees and allowed to properly matriculate into Oxford University.
I love these contemporary photographs. It was about time!
Women had been studying in Oxford since the 1870's, attending lectures, sitting examinations and paying for their education. They could do the work, pass the exams and had their own colleges but were denied the degree and the privileges of membership of the University.
Absurd restrictions including women attending men's lectures needing chaperones, and enter by another door. Only in 1914 were women finally permitted to attend lectures without chaperones.
In the aftermath of WW1 the university finally voted to admit women as full members in May 1920.
Why then is an interesting question.
On 7 October, the first women matriculated and the following week, the Sheldonian welcomed its first female graduates. Women who had completed their studies years even decades earlier returned to claim degrees they had already earned.
Among those celebrating this extraordinary breakthrough was Dorothy L. Sayers, the future crime novelist and creator of the aristocratic detective Lord Peter Wimsey. She had achieved first-class honours in modern languages at Somerville in 1915 but had waited five years for the University to recognise her achievement with a degree. Ivy Williams, meanwhile, had waited considerably longer, having passed her law examinations in 1900 and 1902. On this historic day she finally received her BA, MA and Bachelor of Civil Law degrees, and in 1922 became the first woman called to the English Bar. Watching these momentous proceedings was the young Vera Brittain, then studying history at Somerville, who had served as a volunteer nurse during the First World War. She would later immortalise her experiences in Testament of Youthand become a prominent feminist and peace campaigner. She described the atmosphere in the Sheldonian as "tense with the consciousness of a dream fulfilled".
Oxford had finally opened the door and academic levels soared again..
A reminder that some of Oxford's most remarkable history concerns who had to fight to get in.
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