The University of London and Women Students The University of London and Women Students Jacqueline Banerjee , Ph.D, Contributing Editor, Victorian Web [ Victorian Web Home —> Social History —> Education —> University of London ] The University has a very good record here. Women students could attend classes at Birkbeck from 1830, and in 1832 two brave souls signed up for some lectures on electricity at London University — as University College was then known (Harte, The Admission of Women 5). The date from which women were really welcomed at University College is sometimes given as 1848 (e.g. Ackroyd 512), but their presence is not actually recorded until over a hundred schoolmistresses and the like attended lectures on animal physiology in 1861-2. The true breakthrough here came in the later '60s through the efforts of Henry Morley, a lecturer in English who came over from King's in 1865, because his Unitarian beliefs prevented him from becoming a Professor at that still strongly Anglican establishment. Morley conducted a concerted campaign to get women admitted to his new place of work on a regular basis.

He was the right man at the right time, for this was a period when the tide was obviously turning. The Slade School of Fine Art opened in 1871, with both men and women attending most of the classes; and the London School of Medicine for Women was set up in 1874. To trace the process at University College briefly: a decision to offer "Tuesday Evening Lectures" in the college "adapted to a general audience, including ladies" (Harte, The Admission of Women 8) was followed by the gradual integration of a "Ladies' Educational Association" with regular college classes, and mixed classes were at last established in October 1878. Meanwhile, King's had already been contributing very usefully to the provision of higher education for women, largely through the efforts and inspiration of F.D. Maurice , Professor of English Literature and History there since 1840, and Professor of Theology from 1846-1853. Along with other members of staff at King's, he had founded Queen's College in Harley Street, mainly for the education of future governesses, in 1846.

Amongst its early pupils were those two future girls' school principals, the pioneering and redoubtable Miss Buss and Miss Beale. From the start, the Anglican Queen's College was open to girls and women from the age of twelve, and it was destined to become what it is now — a very fine public school for girls. King's people also actively supported the non-denominational Bedford College, a new establishment for women in Bedford Square, founded by the social reformer Elizabeth Jesser Reid in 1849. Dickens sent one of his daughters for art lessons there. This too took younger pupils, but it developed differently from Queen's College, becoming a fully-fledged women's college in 1900. Later (in 1985) it would merge with another women's establishment, Royal Holloway College , to make one of the major constituent colleges of today's university. In the early years, many King's Professors taught at both Queen's College and Bedford College in their spare time; a number of University College Professors also taught at Bedford College.

At last, in 1878, not only could women students take their places alongside men at University College, but the battle for women's rights within the university as a whole was finally won: its examinations were opened to women. However long the process may seem, the University of London was still the first in the country to grant degrees to women, and when these bluestockinged trailblazers actually appeared in the Convocation of 1882, Punch celebrated with a verse entitled "Girl Graduates." The concluding stanza provides a fitting memento of the occasion: Thus Woman wins. Haul down your flag, Oh, stern misogynist, before her. However much a man may brag Of independence, he'll adore her. Traditions of the bygone days Are cast aside, old rules are undone; In Convocation Woman sways The University of London.

[qtd in Harte, The University of London 127] Cambridge University opened its examinations to women in 1881, and Oxford in 1884, though again it took longer for their respective students actually to receive degrees if they passed.* Lord Leighton's design for the opening tableau of the Tale of Troy, a fund-raising effort 1883 and 1886 for the Ladies' Department of King's College London. [Click on thumbnail for larger image.] To return to King's: as soon as women were allowed to take degrees, it began offering lectures for them, under its own auspices, in Kensington (a much more genteel location than the theatre-studded Strand). A Department for the Higher Education of Women was set up in 1881, royal assent for it being received in 1882.

It obviously had tremendous support from the establishment: fund-raising performances of the Tale of Troy in 1883 and 1886 had an opening tableau designed by Lord Leighton, and cast members included the Beerbohm Trees (the couple played Hector and Helen), Tennyson's younger son Lionel (in the 1883 production), and Mrs Andrew Lang and Mrs Bram Stoker (Marsh 19). The Ladies' Department of King's eventually grew into an independent college of the university, under the new name of Queen Elizabeth College. Men were also admitted to it in 1953, and in 1985 the college was incorporated back into King's. Although mixed classes were held at University College from 1878, women still had a separate Common Room there (in fact, the Common Rooms were not desegregated until 1969 [Harte and North 144]), and many in those days still considered women-only establishments more appropriate. Royal Holloway, mentioned above, was founded by the wealthy philanthropist Thomas Holloway and his wife Jane in Egham in 1879.

This too was admitted as a part of the University in 1900 (along with Bedford College and the recently founded London School of Economics). Yet another women's college was Westfield College, founded in 1882, and granted its charter in 1932. Together with St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College and the London Hospital Medical College, this merged with Queen Mary College only quite recently-in 1995. In one sense, then, it was not surprising that by 1900 as many as thirty percent of the university's graduates were women. Yet, in another sense, it was. Around this time, for example, Mrs Humphrey Ward was still urging people to educate their daughters properly: "For Heaven's sake, why do we leave our children's minds empty like this?" (368) exclaims a friend of Laura Fountain's father in Helbeck of Bannisdale (1898). After all, this thirty percent still only represented a small proportion of the female population in the appropriate age group.

Of course, this was partly because, right up until the founding of new universities like East Anglia, Sussex and Warwick in the 1960s, and the conversion of old "Polytechnics" into universities in the early 1990s, university education continued to be the preserve of the privileged few of both sexes. To complete the story, slowly but surely the need for women-only establishments disappeared. About twelve years after Queen Elizabeth College started admitting men, both Bedford and Royal Holloway followed suit. That was in 1965, twenty years before Bedford moved out of its own campus (by then in Regent's Park) to merge with Royal Holloway in its splendid Victorian premises in Egham. * Note: There is a wonderful account of Philippa Fawcett, daughter of the prominent Suffragist Millicent Fawcett, and niece of Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, hearing at the Senate of Cambridge University that she has achieved the highest marks in the Finals Tripos: "There was a great and prolonged cheering; many of the men turned towards Philippa, who was sitting in the gallery with Miss Clough, and waved their hats....

She was, of course, tremendously delighted." Though covered with glory, she cannot actually be named "Senior Wrangler," because the accolade must go to the highest-scoring male student. Nor can she even claim to have a degree, only to have the passed the degree examinations, not quite the same thing (Kenyon 74-75). Sources Ackroyd, Peter. London, The Biography. London: Vintage, 2000. Harte, Negley. The Admission of Women to University College, London: A Centenary Lecture. London: University College London, 1979. _____. The University of London, 1836-1986. London: Athlone Press, 1986. Harte, Negley, and John North. The World of University College, 1828-2004. 3rd ed. London: University College, 2004. Hearnshaw, F.J.C. The Centenary History of King's College, London, 1828-1928. London: Harrap, 1929. Kenyon, Olga, ed.

800 Years of Women's Letters. Stroud: Sutton, 1994. (The excerpt here is taken from Ray Strachey's Millicent Fawcett. (1931)). Marsh, Neville. The History of Queen Elizabeth College: One Hundred Years of University Education in Kensington. London: King's College, 1986. Ward, Mrs Humphrey. Helbeck of Bannisdale. London: Smith, Elder, and Co, 1898. See also individual college websites. Women’s access to higher education: An overview (1860-1948) | HerStoria Women’s access to higher education: An overview (1860-1948) Reading/References Women’s struggle for higher education did not begin in the mid-late nineteenth century. There had been calls for women to receive educational opportunities equivalent to their brothers well before, including pleas from notable women including Margaret Cavendish (1623-1673), Mary Astell (1666-1731) and Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797).

It was from the mid-late nineteenth century however that real progress began to be made, achieved as part of a broader campaign which centred on a range of women’s issues. This first-wave ‘feminist’ movement began with the ladies of The Langham Place Group. The Langham Place Group The Langham Place Group campaigned on a variety of women’s issues from around 1857 to 1866. The Group comprised a number of like-minded friends (all privileged women with both resourcefulness and resources) who were moved by the unfair treatment and limitations faced by women and determined to make things better. They began to develop what is seen as a politics of ‘liberal feminism’; this embraced not just education but suffrage for women, employment opportunities, and reform of the law regarding married women’s property (see The Married Women’s Property Acts ). The Group took its name from the offices of the English Woman’s Journal, the periodical through which the Group expressed their views, which was based at 19 Langham Place, London W1. The Langham Place Group. Barbara Bodichon, Emily Davies and Bessie Rayner Parkes.

The origin of the Group was in the friendship of two young women, both from Unitarian dissenting families, Barbara Leigh Smith (later Bodichon) and Bessie Rayner Parkes. They were soon joined by Emily Davies. The Garrett sisters, Elizabeth and Millicent, were also frequent visitors to Langham Place. A story is told that one day, while brushing their hair, Emily Davies and Elizabeth and Millicent Garrett were chattering about the problems facing women and decided that they would have to do something about it. Emily agreed to open the universities to women, Elizabeth was assigned to open up the professions, beginning with medicine, and Milly (who was just thirteen) was given the task of winning the vote. And so they did. In due course Emily co-founded Girton, the first college for women at Cambridge, Elizabeth Garrett Anderson became one of the first woman doctors, and Millicent Fawcett led the constitutional campaign for women’s suffrage. The Ladies of Langham Place soon came to believe that education was the key that underpinned their other campaigns. Education was a particular grievance for middle-class women who tended still to be taught at home, often by governesses who were not well-tutored themselves.

A first step to redressing this had been taken when male teachers at Kings College, London, supported by the Governesses’ Benevolent Association, opened Queens College in Harley Street which offered to governesses free evening classes in academic subjects including Latin, history, mathematics and moral philosophy. Two early pupils and at Queens became pioneers in girls’ education: Frances Mary Buss (1827-1894) founded North London Collegiate School in 1850 and Dorothea Beale (1831-1906) founded Cheltenham Ladies’ College in 1858. Sophia Jex Blake (1840-1912), who founded the London School of Medicine for Women, was a student there from age 17 and also tutored in mathematics. Many supporters at the time believed a higher education was necessary to make women more effective wives, mothers and teachers. In the 1860s especially, only a few saw education as a means to change women’s lives and to give them the same opportunities as men.

In 1862 Francis Power Cobbe (1822-1904) had read a very ‘advanced’ paper to the Social Science Association in London entitled ‘University Degrees for Women’. In her autobiography she reports that ‘Every daily paper in London laughed at my demand, and for a week or two I was the butt of universal ridicule’. Despite the reception to Cobbe’s suggestion, momentum was gathering. Women’s lecture associations began to be formed in various parts of the country which offered extension lectures for women, often given by sympathetic university dons. These ‘lecture clubs’ proved very popular and they led to the idea of colleges and examinations for women too. Girton College, Cambridge: A college like a man’s Girton Gollege, Cambridge When, in 1869, Emily Davies set up Girton College (with backing from Barbara Bodichon) she was faced with just the kind of ridicule that had earlier been directed at Cobbe. Davies had to tread carefully—especially as she aimed to open ‘A college like a man’s’.

In 1868, the year before the college opened its doors, she had observed that ‘the best girls’ schools are precisely those in which the ‘masculine’ subjects have been introduced’. The subjects that she was referring to were mathematics, Latin and Greek. When it came to the contentious issue of higher education for women, Davies was convinced that only if women succeeded in subjects held to be prestigious for men would their educational achievements be recognised as equally valid. She rejected any idea of a special system or curriculum for women because, to opponents of women’s higher education, ‘different’ would automatically mean ‘inferior’. Emily Davies put these ideas into practice the following year when she opened a residential college for women in Hitchin. She had been working to prepare the ground for this venture; earlier she had persuaded the Taunton Commission to include girls’ education in their investigation into education in England. They reported in 1868, concluding that there were serious weaknesses in girls’ intellectual training. As a result of this, girls schools were included under the Endowed Schools Act of 1869.

Davies choose Hitchin as a location for her college because it was a safe and ‘seemly’ distance from the men’s colleges in Cambridge. (Davies did not want to cause any scandal occasioned by a mixing of the sexes.) The initial premises soon proved too small and in 1893 a move was made to new purpose-built buildings, some four miles distant from Cambridge, at Girton. Again, Davies wanted her ladies to be a safe distance from the men’s colleges—although it was a long haul for the male dons who Davies persuaded to come out to teach. Newnam College, Cambridge Newnham Hall, which developed in 1875 from Mrs Eleanor Sidgwick’s lecture series for women in Cambridge (later becoming Newnham College) operated a different philosophy to Girton. The Sidgwicks (Henry and Eleanor) saw their women’s college as a beacon with which to reform the whole university system, so they did not make their students conform to the rules of the men’s colleges. Instead they tailored the curriculum for their female students, and allowed women to study part time and take longer to prepare for examinations if needed.

This was anathema to Emily Davies and the relationship between the two, first, women’s colleges at Cambridge was often tense. Oxford opened two halls for women in the 1870s too, Somerville and Lady Margaret Hall. That Infidel Place All of these colleges, but Girton in particular, attracted a lot of a criticism to begin with, indeed the term ‘Girton girl’ applied to a daughter could strike fear into a parent’s heart. One Rev. famously called Girton College ‘That Infidel Place’ and it was denounced from more than one pulpit. Opponents claimed that Girton and women’s colleges like it (especially residential ones) posed a threat to the family by tempting women away from their natural and proper role: that of a wife and mother. Conservative clergymen joined doctors and parents in condemning higher education for women as unchristian and dangerous. In the words of Oxford theologian Henry Liddon, the founding of Lady Margaret Hall was ‘an educational development that runs counter to the wisdom and experience of all the centuries of Christendom’. And, any threat to the family was, of course, also a threat to the social order.

The colleges sought to counter these criticisms by projecting conventional values and virtues, and by adhering to best behaviour. In many respects, these colleges were very conservative institutions—they were vulnerable and could not afford to be otherwise. Students were expected to convey ‘perfect womanliness’; they were inspected as to their dress and appearance, and chaperoned when attending lectures or social events. To argue their case, the colleges stressed that education would help, not hinder, a woman to perform her domestic, feminine role. Could women cope with serious study? Queen’s College London, the first women’s college. In addition to the clergy, some of the loudest voices arguing against women’s higher education were those of the medical profession making a case from science for its detrimental effects on the ‘less robust’ sex. Particular concern was caused by the medical theory of ‘menstrual disability’, a belief that spawned a condition coined ‘anorexia scolastica’ which was believed to be a debilitating thinness and weakness resulting from too much mental stimulus, especially during menstruation. Pioneers of higher education took these warnings seriously.

When Henry Maudsley published his oft-quoted ‘Sex in Mind and Education’ in 1874, arguing that women would suffer immense harm to their health by following study regimes similar to men’s, Emily Davies and her group were worried that it could hurt their plans as ‘there is much truth in it’. They were moved to action when William Withers Moore made similar arguments in an 1886 presidential address to the British Medical Association prompting calls for protective legislation for women of the educated classes analogous to that introduced for women working in factories and mines. In response to these anxieties, women’s colleges carried out joint research on the health, marriage and childbirth patterns of former students. Their findings contradicted medical opinion in concluding that college-educated women were healthier and less likely to have childless marriages than their less-educated sisters and cousins. Another way in which educational pioneers sought to counter health fears, and to reassure female students and their families, was to include medical facilities within women’s colleges, as was done as part of Girton’s expansion in 1876. Equivalent facilities were not considered essential at men’s colleges. Mathematics – too hard for women? A particular problem was anticipated when women attempted hard men’s subjects, particularly mathematics.

Even Sara Burstall (who was an early student of mathematics at Girton and who became Headmistress of Manchester High School for Girls) could at times be ambivalent to mathematics’ place within female programmes of study. Echoing Herbert Spencer’s principle of the ‘conservation of energy’, she argued in 1912 that teaching girls mathematics required too much teaching for too little return, consequently ‘We ought to recognise that the average girl has a natural disability for Mathematics. One cause may be that she has less vital energy to spare ….’ Spencer believed that female evolution, meaning intellectual evolution, had stopped at a stage before man’s in order to preserve vital organs for childbirth. If a woman undertook rigorous ‘brain work’ such as mathematics, energy could be diverted from her reproductive system, threatening fertility and general wellbeing. Any question mark over women’s ability to do mathematics appeared to have been squashed when, in 1890, Philippa Fawcett of Newnham College beat the top male student (or senior wrangler) in the mathematics tripos. This was a great achievement.

Mathematics was the elite Cambridge degree for men until the 1890s and Philippa beat him by a considerable number of marks, gaining attention in the national press. (Philippa was the daughter of the suffrage leader and Langham Place associate Millicent Fawcett.) Women denied degrees But studying at a woman’s college at Cambridge or Oxford, and passing the examinations, did not mean that women received degrees. To use Girton as an example, the college was not linked to the University but maintained an unofficial relationship with it until well into the twentieth century. Women were not awarded degrees on an equal basis to men at Cambridge until 1948, partly because if women had degrees they would also have the privileges that came them, i.e. equal status, voting rights and a share in the governance of the institution. At Cambridge and Oxford the process of allowing women full access to study and to degrees was piecemeal. First exams were opened to women in certain subjects (1881 Cambridge; 1884 Oxford). At this time the women’s colleges were still reliant on friendly dons to teach the women and send over the examination papers.

Eventually university lectures began to open up to women, although this was always at the discretion of the lecturer. In Cambridge the question of awarding degrees to women caused bitter controversy. The question arose (again) in 1897 and was overwhelmingly defeated, provoking near riots in Cambridge by university men opposing the move. Quite this level of discord was not so apparent at Oxford University, although Oxford had been less receptive than Cambridge to the idea of women’s colleges. According to historian Janet Howarth, supporters of women’s education in Oxford did not seek the role of pioneers and by the time that Somerville and Lady Margaret Hall opened in 1879, with twelve and nine students respectively, over 300 women had already passed through Girton and Newnham Colleges. Although Somerville and Lady Margaret Hall were joined by St Hugh’s in 1886 and St Hilda’s in 1893, the number of women students at the Oxford colleges remained small compared to those at Cambridge. This slighter presence was reflected in the lack of formal connections between the women’s colleges and the University.

Whereas Cambridge had opened mathematics and other examinations (although not degrees) to women on an official basis in the early 1880s, the Oxford halls for women remained independent and unrecognised until 1910. Although women were allowed to sit some examinations from 1884, including mathematics, the University was careful to distance itself from any seeming public endorsement. Technically, Oxford women were examined by the ‘Delegacy of Local Examinations’ which had merely been granted the right to make use of undergraduate examination papers. Women were finally awarded degrees at Oxford in 1920 but in Cambridge the women were denied again in 1921, having to settle for titles of degrees only (called, inevitably, the ‘BA tit’). This time some men of the university celebrated victory over the women by using a handcart as a battering ram to destroy much of Newnham College’s entry gates. Cambridge women were now trapped on the margins of the University.

They could hold University posts (twelve women were appointed as teachers in 1926 and Dorothy Garrod, a Fellow of Newnham, was elected Professor of Archaeology in 1938) but women could not speak or vote in the affairs of their own departments or of the University as a whole. Finally in 1948 the women were admitted to full membership of the University, although the University still retained powers to limit their numbers (and did so quite stringently until the 1970s). Beyond Oxbridge The University of London is usually credited as the first institution to open its degrees to both sexes on an equal basis (except for medicine) in 1878, but the pattern of women’s admission is complex and much depends on definitions. London’s evolution was very different to that of its Oxbridge counterparts; it was formed in 1836 as an examining body and because of this imposed no residential requirement on candidates presenting themselves for examination. This not only benefited women wishing to study independently at home, it also became a route for women ‘graduates’ of Cambridge and Oxford to gain the formal degree qualification denied them by their former institutions.

After 1898 the University became a federal ‘Teaching University’ and began offering courses in its constituent colleges. In 1907 University College London (which in 1878 had also opened degree programmes in the Faculties of Sciences, Arts and Laws to women) ceased to have a separate existence and was incorporated into the University of London as, earlier, had other women’s colleges in London. Plaque commemorating the founding of Bedford College. Bedford College: In 1849 Elizabeth Jesser Reid founded a ‘Ladies’ College’ at 47 Bedford Square which became Bedford College in 1869; there is a plaque in memory to her there today. Jesser Reid (1789-1866) was a Unitarian, anti-slavery campaigner and philanthropist. She married John Reid in 1821, but he died a year later leaving her a wealthy widow with money enough to support the women’s causes most dear to her. Elizabeth Jesser Reid’s aim was to elevate ‘the moral and intellectual character of women, as a means to an improved state of society…..

we shall never have better Men til Men have better Mothers’ (letter, Reid to Henry Crabb Robinson, 1858). In her aim to produce ‘better Mothers’, Reid was not alone among early pioneers of women’s education. These women, concerned about causing controversy, frequently voiced the argument that higher education would make women better wives and mothers. Campaigners took one step at a time and did not regularly call for women, even those educated to degree-level, to have the same opportunities and roles as their brothers. The concept of a ‘liberal’ education—one that developed the intellect and person but was not vocational or linked to any profession— was important to Jesser Reid, and to the founders of women’s colleges at Cambridge some twenty years later. Nevertheless, women at Bedford College studied science as well as the arts and, in the late 1880s, six laboratories were erected for the purpose at a cost of £6000. This move won the College strong praise from the scientific journal Nature (Jan 23 1890). Royal Holloway College, Egham. Royal Holloway College was founded by the businessman and millionaire Thomas Holloway in 1879 in memory of his wife Jane.

The College, with its grand and imposing Founders Building modeled after the style of a grand French chateau, was opened by Queen Victoria in 1886. By 1897 there were over 100 women resident as students, many preparing for examinations of the University of London or Oxford, but others not seeking to sit examinations or gain any qualifications at all. The College Calendar for 1897-8 states that the Founder believed that the education of women ‘should not be exclusively regulated by the tradition and methods of former ages’ but should include ‘studies and sciences which the experience of modern times has shown to be the most valuable…’ (p. 22). In the late 1880s and early 1890s Biological, Chemical and Physical laboratories were established at Royal Holloway and there was a strong programme of teaching in the sciences including mathematics and astronomy, botany, physics, chemistry and zoology. Women residential students at all colleges were generally subject to strict regimes of care and control designed to guard against any ill health brought on by ‘strong brain work’ and to reassure parents.

During the first decades at Royal Holloway students’ health was recorded, they were expected to attend gymnasium classes twice a week and were weighed and measured every term. Other opportunities for higher education for women in London were offered by Kings College and Westfield College. King’s College ‘Ladies’ Department’ was established in Kensington Square in the 1880s. This was successful and student numbers grew well into the 1900s. Due to administrative reorganisation in 1908, women students in the arts and sciences transferred from Kensington to the Strand and Kensington became a separate site for Household and Social Sciences. From 1918 King’s welcomed women students alongside men when it became the first mixed medical school in London. Westfield College for women was founded in Hampstead by Constance Louisa Maynard (1849-1935) and Ann Dudin Brown (1823-1917). It was conceived as a Christian institution (Maynard held weekly bible classes) and prepared women to sit for the examinations of the University of London. Westfield was always a relatively small college, limiting the number of students to 60 at any one time.

A significant number of early Westfield graduates joined missionary organisations. In 1900, Bedford, Royal Holloway and Westfield Colleges, together with Kings, were admitted as a schools of the new University of London when it was constituted as a teaching university. A great number of the graduates of all of these early higher education colleges for women went on to be teachers (after all, there were few other opportunities open to them except that of wife and mother). At this time, too, the provincial Universities in England were receiving their charters and many opened their doors to men and women on equal terms (for example Bristol in 1909 and Leeds in 1904); the federal Victoria University, from which Manchester and Liverpool originated, admitted women on equal terms from 1880. In addition, the ancient Scottish universities allowed women access to most departments from 1896; the University of Wales was founded on equal terms in 1893, and Trinity College Dublin allowed women degrees from 1903. The production of competent and ambitious teachers was a great dynamic in the growth of good girls’ schools able to equip their pupils for higher education … and so the movement for women’s education continued to progress.

By Claire Jones; with thanks to Steven Rhodes and Vicky Holmes, Archivist, Royal Holloway, University of London. Reading/References A History of Women's Rights A BRIEF HISTORY OF WOMEN'S RIGHTS By Tim Lambert Women's Rights in the Ancient World In the Ancient World women's rights varied from one civilization to another. In Ancient Egypt women had a great deal of freedom. They could own property and they could sign contracts. (There is evidence that in Ancient Egypt some women could read and write). A famous woman Pharaoh called Hatshepsut once ruled Egypt. In Ancient Israel the father had authority over his family. He could divorce his wife if he wished. He could also arrange marriages for his children. Girls in Israel got married very young. A girl could marry when she was 12. When a father died his sons inherited his property. The oldest son was given a double share. Daughters could only inherit property if there were no sons. In Ancient Greece people worshiped goddesses as well as gods. Women did participate in some religious ceremonies but not in politics or warfare. In a wealthy family women were women were kept apart from men. They were usually confined to the back or upper part of the house.

Girls married when they were about 15. Marriages were arranged for them and often their husband was much older than them. In a rich Greek family the wife was expected to run the home and, sometimes, to manage the finances. However rich women would normally stay indoors and send slaves to do the shopping. Poor women, of course, had no choice. They might also have to help their husbands with farm work. Women, even rich ones, were expected to spin and weave cloth and make clothes. However in Sparta women could own and inherit property. Sappho, a Greek woman poet lived around 600 BC. Theano of Crotona was a great mathematician born about 546 BC. About 150 BC Aglaonike was a woman astronomer. In Rome women could not vote or hold public office. However women were allowed to own and inherit property and some ran businesses. (In the New Testament there is a woman named Lydia who sold purple cloth). Meanwhile Celtic women had a good deal of freedom and many rights. Celtic women could rule in their own right. One famous woman of the ancient world was Bouddica.

She was queen of the Iceni, a Celtic tribe who lived in what is now Norfolk in England. She led a rebellion against Roman rule. Another famous woman of the Ancient world was Hypatia (355?-415 AD). She was a mathematician, astronomer and philosopher who lived in Alexandria in Egypt. Women's Rights in the Middle Ages and 16th and 17th Century Well off Saxon women had considerable freedom (although both men and women could be slaves). Saxon women were allowed to own and inherit property and to make contracts. In Viking society too women had a good deal of freedom. However life was hard for everyone in Saxon Times and the Middle Ages and women as well as men had to work hard to survive. In the Middle Ages it was not unusual for middle class women to run their own businesses. In England the mystic Margery Kempe ran a brewery and later a horse mill, using horses to grind corn. Women married to craftsmen usually learned their husband's trade and carried it on if their husband died. Famous women of the Middle Ages In the 16th century women were martyred for their religious beliefs. They refused to compromise even if tortured.

In 1513 Henry VIII went to war in France. He made the queen, Catherine of Aragon, Governor of the Realm and Captain-General of the home forces in his absence. In other words he was willing to entrust the kingdom to her. In 1544 Henry went to war in France again. This time he made Catherine Parr regent in his absence. In the 16th and 17th centuries the professions (teacher, lawyer, doctor) were closed to women. However some women had jobs. Some of them worked spinning cloth. Women were also tailors, milliners, dyers, shoemakers and embroiderers. There were also washerwomen. Some women worked in food preparation such as brewers, bakers or confectioners. Women also sold foodstuffs in the streets. A very common job for women was domestic servant. Other women were midwives and apothecaries. However most women were housewives and they were kept very busy. Most men could not run a farm or a business without their wife's help. Poor and middle class wives were kept very busy but rich women were not idle either. In a big house they had to organize and supervise the servants.

Also if her husband was away the woman usually ran the estate. Very often a merchant's wife did his accounts and if he was travelling she looked after the business. Often when a merchant wrote his will he left his business to his wife - because she would be able to run it. In the 16th century girls did not go to school. However girls from well off families were usually educated at home. Tutors taught upper class girls. Their mothers taught middle class girls reading, writing, arithmetic and skills like sewing. Merchant's daughters were very often taught to run their father's business. In the early 16th century some upper class women were highly educated. Two of Henry VIII's wives, Catherine of Aragon and Catherine Parr were well educated. Queen Elizabeth I was also well educated and she liked reading. Wealthy girls learned music and dancing and needlework. They also learned to read and write and they learned languages like Greek and Latin, Spanish, Italian and French. However towards the end of the 16th century girls spent less time on academic subjects and more time on skills like music and embroidery. Moreover during the 17th century boarding schools for girls were founded in many towns.

In them girls were taught subjects like writing, music and needlework. In the 16th century marriages were usually arranged, except for the poorest people. Divorce was unknown. Legally girls could marry when they were 12 years old. However normally it was only girls from rich families who married young. The majority of women married in their mid-20s. Famous women of the 16th century Women's Rights in the 18th Century There was little change in women's rights in the 18th century. Girls from well off families went to school but it was felt important for them to learn 'accomplishments' like embroidery and music rather than academic subjects. Nevertheless there were a number of famous women writers and scientists in the 18th century. Maria Kirch was a famous astronomer. So was Caroline Herschel . Laura Bassi became professor of anatomy at Bologna University in 1732. Maria Agnesi was a famous mathematician and Emilie du Chatelet was a woman physicist and mathematician. In 1792 Mary Wollstonecraft published a book called A Vindication of the Rights of Woman.

Women's Rights in the 19th Century In the 19th century women gained more opportunities for employment. In the 19th century most working class girls began to get some education. In the early and mid 19th century the churches provided some schools. After 1870 the state provided them. In early 19th century Britain working conditions were often appalling but parliament passed laws to protect women and children. In 1842 a law banned women and boys under 10 from working underground. Then in 1847 a Factory Act said that women and children could only work 10 hours a day in textile factories. In 1867 the law was extended to all factories. (A factory was defined as a place where more than 50 people were employed in a manufacturing process). An act of 1878 said women in any factories could not work more than 56 hours a week. In 1874 the first successful typewriter went on sale and the telephone was invented in 1876. These two new inventions meant more job opportunities for women. Ultimately technological and economic change transformed the lives of women.

There were many famous women in the 19th century. Two of them were Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole . They reformed nursing. There were also many famous women writers in the 19th century. Among them were Jane Austen , the Bronte sisters, Elizabeth Gaskell and George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans). There were many milestones for women in the 19th century. In 1865 Elizabeth Garrett Anderson became the first woman doctor in Britain. Then in 1872 Victoria Woodhull became the first woman to run for president of the USA. The first American woman to be elected a mayor was Susanna Mador Salter in 1887. The first woman in Britain to qualify as a dentist was Lilian Murray in 1895. The first woman to qualify as an architect in Britain was Ethel Charles in 1898. Meanwhile laws were passed against domestic violence. In 1853 in Britain a law made the punishment for wife beating up to 6 months in prison with or without hard labor. In the USA Tennessee passed a law making wife beating a crime in 1850.

By 1870 it was illegal in most US States. Maryland was the last US state to pass such a law, in 1882. Meanwhile in Britain in 1878 a law allowed a woman to obtain a separation order from a magistrate if her husband was violent. In the late 19th century women gained opportunities in higher education. In the USA in 1841 three women gained bachelor degrees from Oberlin College. They were the first American women to gain bachelor degrees. In 1877 Helen Magill White became the first woman in the USA to gain a PhD. London University was the first British university to award women degrees in 1880. Until the late 19th century in Britain everything a married woman had was, legally her husbands property. However the 1870 Married Women's Property act stated that a married woman's earnings belonged to her. Further Married Woman's Property Acts were passed in 1882 and 1893. They allowed married women to own, buy and sell property the same as a single woman. Meanwhile in the USA the first women's rights convention was held at Seneca Falls in 1848.

The same year astronomer Maria Mitchell became the first woman member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Life in the 19th Century Women's Rights in the 20th Century During the 20th century women gained equal rights with men. Technological and economic changes made it inevitable that women would be given the same rights as men. At the beginning of the 19th century only a small minority of men could vote. During the 19th century the right to vote was gradually extended to more and more men. (Although in Britain not all men could vote until 1918). Once most men could vote movements began to get women the right to vote as well. In 1897 in Britain local groups of women who demanded the vote joined to form the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS). The organisation was moderate and its members were called suffragists. However in 1903 a more radical organisation was formed called the Women�s Social and Political Union (WSPU). It was led by Emmeline Pankhurst and its members were called suffragettes. Suffragettes committed crimes like vandalism and arson. They also planted bombs.

However the suffragettes halted their campaign when the first World War began in 1914. Many men supported the suffragists and wanted women to be allowed to vote. In 1907 they formed the Men's League for Women's Suffrage. However not all women wanted to be able to vote. In Britain the Women's National Anti-Suffrage League was formed in 1908. Its president was a famous writer named Mary Humphry Ward. Finally in 1918 in Britain women over 30 were allowed to vote. In 1928 women in Britain were allowed to vote at the age of 21 (the same as men). In 1919 Nancy Astor became the first female MP and in 1929 Margaret Bondfield became the first female cabinet minister. In 1979 Margaret Thatcher became the first woman Prime Minister of Britain. In the USA the campaign for women's right to vote was led by Susan B Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. In 1869 Stanton and Anthony founded the National Woman Suffrage Association. Also in 1869 Lucy Stone and Henry Blackwell founded the American Woman Suffrage Association.

The two joined forces in 1890 as the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). However in the USA as in Britain some women were anti-suffragists and they opposed women being allowed to vote. Meanwhile the territory of Wyoming allowed women to vote in 1869. When Wyoming joined the union in 1890 it became the first state in the USA to allow women to vote. Some other states followed. Finally in 1920 the 19th amendment gave women in all states the right to vote. Meanwhile in 1917 Jeannette Rankin became the first woman to serve in Congress (in the House of Representatives). Then in 1922 Rebecca Latimer Felton became the first woman US senator. In 1925 Nellie Tayloe Ross became the first woman governor of a US state (Wyoming). In 1981 Sandra Day O'Connor became the first woman judge on the US supreme court. Madeleine Albright became the first US secretary of state in 1997. Other countries also granted women the right to vote.

New Zealand was the first country in the world to allow women to vote in national elections in 1893. In Australia women were granted the right to vote in federal elections in 1902. In Canada women were allowed to vote in federal elections in 1918. Canada gained its first woman MP in 1921. Her name was Agnes Macphail. From 1906 Finnish women were allowed to vote. Furthermore in 1907 Finnish women became the first in the world to win seats in a national parliament. In Norway women were given the vote in local elections in 1907 and in national elections in 1913. Denmark allowed women to vote in 1915. Germany and Austria granted women the right to vote in 1918. The Netherlands followed in 1919. Sweden gave all women the right to vote in 1921. In Spain women gained the vote in 1931. In Turkey women gained full voting rights in 1934. However in France women were not allowed to vote until 1944.

Women in Italy were given the right to vote in 1945. Women in Greece were allowed to vote in 1952 but in Switzerland they were not allowed to until 1971. The first woman to become prime minister of a country was Sirimavo Bandaranaike in Sri Lanka in 1960. The first woman to be president of a country was Isabel Peron in Argentina in 1974. (Although she was originally vice president and became president on the death of the president). The first woman to be elected president was Vigdis Finnbogadottir in Iceland in 1980. In the 20th century more occupations were opened to women. Elizabeth Garrett Anderson became the first woman mayor in Britain in 1908. In 1913 Emily Dawson became the first woman magistrate in Britain. Meanwhile In 1910 the first policewoman was appointed in Los Angeles. The first policewomen in Britain went on duty in 1914. The 1919 Sex Disqualification Removal Act allowed women to become lawyers, vets and civil servants. (The first female solicitor was Carrie Morrison in 1922).

Also in 1922 Irene Barclay became the first female chartered surveyor. In 1917 the WRNS (Women's Royal Naval Service) was formed. So was the WRAF (Women's Royal Air Force). In 1938 the Auxiliary Territorial Service, the female branch of the British army was formed. In 1958 Hilda Harding became the first woman bank manager in Britain. Nevertheless in the early 20th century it was uncommon for married women to work (except in wartime). However in the 1950s and 1960s it became common for them to do so - at least part-time. New technology made it easier for married women to do paid work. Before the 20th century housework was so time consuming it left married women no time for work. The economy also changed. Manufacturing industry became less important but service industries grew, which created more job opportunities for women. In the USA the Equal Pay Act 1963 compelled employers to give equal pay for equal work. In Britain in 1970 an Equal Pay Act made differences in pay and conditions between men and women illegal.

In 1973 women were admitted to the stock exchange. From 1975 it was made illegal to sack women for becoming pregnant. Also in 1975 the Sex Discrimination Act made it illegal to discriminate against women in employment, education and training. In 1984 a new law stated that equal pay must be given for work of equal value. In the late 20th century the number of women in managerial and other highly paid jobs greatly increased. Meanwhile in 1930 Amy Johnson became the first women to fly from Britain to Australia. In 1963 Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space. The first American woman in space was Sally Ride in 1983. The first British woman in space was Helen Sharman in 1991.

Question: Which university, in 1878, was the first in Britain to make all degrees open to women?
Answer: University of London