Women students have come a long way in a short time at Oxford University, writes JAINE BLACKMAN
Next year, five formerly all-male Oxford colleges – Brasenose, Jesus, Wadham, Hertford and St Catherine’s – will be celebrating 40 years of allowing women to be admitted to their hallowed halls.
That’s right, it wasn’t until 1974 that the male bastions of learning were breached.
Although I suppose it could also be pointed out that St Hilda’s College, which was originally for women only, was the last of Oxford’s single-sex colleges and has only admitted smelly boys, sorry, male students, since October 2008.
Oxford – the oldest university in the English-speaking world – has been educating Britain’s brightest and best for centuries.
According to its website there is no clear date of foundation, but teaching existed at Oxford in some form in 1096 and developed rapidly from 1167, when Henry II banned English students from attending the University of Paris.
However, women had to sit it out right through the middle ages, the Tudors, the Civil War... until 1878, when academic halls were first established for females.
Thanks to the pioneering work of the Association for Promoting the Higher Education of Women (AEW) women’s colleges Lady Margaret Hall and Somerville opened in 1879, followed by St Hugh’s in 1886 and St Hilda’s in 1893 (St Anne’s was the last of the women’s colleges to be incorporated by Royal Charter, in 1952).
Women were allowed to sit some university examinations and attend lectures but weren’t admitted to membership of the university until 1920, and it was another 39 years before the five women’s societies were granted full collegiate status in 1959.
So, a bit of catching up to do for the girls.
And aren’t they doing it well.
Among the alumni are world leaders and path beaters in no end of fields. Britain’s first woman PM, first woman President of the Royal College of Physicians, first woman barrister, first woman Director of Public Prosecutions . . . all following in the footsteps of suffragist Emily Davidson.
Here are some of the inspirational women who were educated at Oxford University.
19th Century Graduates
Gertrude Bell, explorer and archaeologist
Eglantyne Jebb, founder of the Save the Children Fund
Eleanor Rathbone, politician and social reformer
Emily Wilding Davison, suffragist
20th & 21st Centuries Graduates
Diran Adebayo, author
Samira Ahmed, journalist and presenter
Monica Ali, author
Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, journalist
Elizabeth Anscombe, philosopher
Zeinab Badawi, journalist and broadcaster
Kate Barker, economist
Dame Josephine Barnes, first female president of the British Medical Association
Marian Bell, economist
Jana Bennett, BBC television executive
Benazir Bhutto, former Prime Minister of Pakistan (1988-90 and 1993-96)
Katy Brand, comedian and actress
Vera Brittain, writer
Fiona Bruce, broadcaster
Baroness (Barbara) Castle, politician
Reeta Chakrabarti, journalist
Yvette Cooper, MP, politician
Wendy Cope, poet
Vivienne Cox, businesswoman
Dr Penelope Curtis, director, Tate Britain
Cressida Dick, Assistant Commissioner, Metropolitan Police
Helen Fielding, author
Dr Amelia Fletcher, chief economist, Office of Fair Trading
Michèle Flournoy, former US Under Secretary of Defense
Emilia Fox, actor
Lady Antonia Fraser, novelist and historian
Indira Gandhi, Prime Minister of India, 1966-77 and 1980-84
Dr Frene Ginwala, former Speaker of the South African National Assembly
Rt Hon Lady Justice Hallett, judge
Dorothy Hodgkin, Nobel Prize-winning chemist
Dame Emma Kirkby, soprano
Martha Lane Fox, businesswoman, co-founder of lastminute.com
Nigella Lawson, chef and broadcaster
Val McDermid, crime writer
Chief Justice Mrs Sujata Vasant Manohar, Judge of the Supreme Court of India 1994-99
Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller, former Director General of the Security Service
Rt Hon Theresa May, MP, politician, UK Home Secretary
Dame Barbara Mills, first female Director of Public Prosecutions
Kate Mosse, novelist
Dame Iris Murdoch, philosopher and author
Sally Phillips, actor and comedian Rosamund Pike, actor Barbara Pym, author
Dr Susan Rice, US Ambassador to the United Nations
Rachel Riley, co-host on Channel 4’s Countdown
Dame Cicely Saunders, founder of the modern hospice movement
Roz Savage, rower and adventurer
Dorothy L Sayers, author
Laura Solon, comedian
Cornelia Sorabji, India’s first female lawyer
Aung San Suu Kyi, leader, Burmese National League for Democracy and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize
Baroness (Margaret) Thatcher, UK Prime Minister, 1979-90
Margaret Turner-Warwick, first woman President of the Royal College of Physicians
Dame Janet Vaughan, haematologist and radiobiologist
Baroness (Mary) Warnock, philosopher
Ivy Williams, first female barrister in the UK
Baroness Shirley Williams, politician
Jeanette Winterson, author
Mara Yamauchi, marathon runner
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