Also by Jane Robinson
Wayward Women
Unsuitable for Ladies
Angels of Albion
Parrot Pie for Breakfast
Pandora’s Daughters
Mary Seacole
www.jane-robinson.com
Bluestockings
The Remarkable Story of the
First Women to Fight for an Education
JANE ROBINSON
VIKING
an imprint of
PENGUIN BOOKS
VIKING
Published by the Penguin Group
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First published 2009
Copyright © Jane Robinson, 2009
The moral right of the author has been asserted
All rights reserved
Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book
ISBN: 978-0-14-196109-5
For Mollie Haigh,
an inspirational lady
Contents
List of Illustrations
Chronology: Landmark Dates in the History of Higher Education for Women in England
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. Ingenious and Learned Ladies
2. Working in Hope
3. Invading Academia
4. Most Abhorred of All Types
5. What to Do if You Catch Fire
6. Freshers
7. Women’s Sphere
8. Blessed Work
9. Spear Fishing and Other Pursuits
10. Shadows
11. Breeding White Elephants
Notes
Select Bibliography
Index
List of Illustrations
1. Frances Buss of North London Collegiate School (courtesy of North London Collegiate School)
2. Constance Louisa Maynard of Girton and Westfield Colleges (courtesy of Queen Mary, University of London Archives, Westfield College Collection)
3. Emily Davies, founder of Girton College (courtesy of the Mistress and Fellows, Girton College, Cambridge)
4. Anne Jemima Clough, the first Principal of Newnham College, Cambridge (courtesy of the Armitt Collection, Ambleside)
5. Dorothea Beale, founder of the Cheltenham Ladies’ College, c. 1885 (courtesy of the Cheltenham Ladies’ College)
6. Eleanor Sidgwick, maths tutor and later Principal of Newnham (courtesy of Harlan Walker)
7. Miss Buss, surrounded by staff and students, 1877 (courtesy of North London Collegiate School)
8. ‘The Ladies’ College’, Somerville Hall (from Graphic, 31 July 1880, courtesy of the Principal and Fellows of Somerville College, Oxford)
9. Students at Cambridge protesting, 1897 (courtesy of Newnham College)
10. A proud graduate, c.1890 (courtesy of Mary Evans Picture Library)
11. Chinese student Pao Swen Tseng, 1916 (courtesy of Queen Mary, University of London Archives, Westfield College Collection)
12. Sarah Mason (Mrs Tebbutt) and her children (courtesy of Tom Lester)
13. A student cocoa party, c.1890 (courtesy of Royal Holloway, University of London)
14. Oxford ‘Home Students’, 1899 (courtesy of St Anne’s College, Oxford)
15. Graduates of St Hild’s in Durham, 1898 (by permission of the College of St Hild and St Bede, Durham University and Durham County Record Office, ref. DRO E/ HB 1/652)
16. The Principal and Students of St Hilda’s, 1907 (courtesy of the Principal and Fellows of St Hilda’s College, Oxford)
17. Girton’s ‘College Five’, 1869 (courtesy of the Mistress and Fellows, Girton College)
18. A portable fire-escape, c.1890 (courtesy of Queen Mary, University of London Archives, Westfield College Collection)
19. The Girton student fire brigade (courtesy of the Mistress and Fellows, Girton College)
20. A third-year performance of The Princess at Girton, 1891 (courtesy of the Mistress and Fellows, Girton College)
21. A group of Girton Classicists, 1891 (courtesy of the Mistress and Fellows, Girton College)
22. Vera Brittain of Somerville College, Oxford, 1913 (copyright © Vera Brittain Estate)
23. Open-air revision in June 1919 (courtesy of the Mistress and Fellows, Girton College)
24. The first women entitled to wear academic dress at Oxford, 1921 (courtesy of the Principal and Fellows of St Hilda’s College)
25. Grace, Julie and Daphne Fredericks (courtesy of Grace Fredericks)
26. Students of Lady Margaret Hall prepare for punting, c.1890 (courtesy of the Principal and Fellows of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford)
27. The Oxford University ladies’ hockey team, c.1900 (courtesy of the Principal and Fellows of Lady Margaret Hall)
28. St Hilda’s Boat Club, 1920s (courtesy of the Principal and Fellows of St Hilda’s College)
29. Exeter University’s tennis team, 1929 (courtesy of Exeter University)
30. The entire student and staff population of Leicester University, 1922 (courtesy of Leicester University)
31. A student chemist at Leeds University, 1908 (courtesy of Mary Evans Picture Library)
32. Physics research at Queen Mary College, c. 1930 (courtesy of Queen Mary, University of London Archives, Queen Mary Collection)
33. A practical lesson in anatomy, 1911 (courtesy of Topical Press Agency/Getty Images)
34. Medical students at Bedford College, London, c.1915 (courtesy of Royal Holloway, University of London)
35. A drawing class in the 1890s (courtesy of Royal Holloway, University of London)
36. Trixie Pearson’s Class of 1932, St Hilda’s College (courtesy of the Principal and Fellows of St Hilda’s College)
Illustrations in the Text
p. iii Girl with a quill pen, from Fritillary (the Oxford women’s colleges’ periodical), November 1924
p. 6 Dr Syntax woos a ‘Blue Stocking Beauty’, Thomas Rowlandson cartoon from William Combe, The Third Tour of Dr Syntax in Search of a Wife, 1821
p. 27 ‘She Stretcheth Out Her Hand to the Poor’, from The Workwoman’s Guide, by a Lady, 1840
p. 40 ‘The Girl: What Will She Become?’, from Punch, 1916
p. 59 Ashburne Hall fire drill, 1905, courtesy of Ashburne Hall Archives
p. 73 Callisthenics routine, from the Girl’s Own Paper, May 1884
p. 90 Women in academic dress, from Fritillary, November 1924
p. 112 Royal Holloway College, c. 1886, courtesy of Royal Holloway, University of London Archives
p. 136 First women graduates in England, from the Girl’s Own Paper, July 1882
p. 166 Pupils practise in the gym at North London Collegiate School, from the Girl’s Own Paper, April 1882
p. 207 Cambridge alumna conquers the world, late nineteenth-century cartoon reproduced in Mountfield, Women and Education, 1990
Chronology
Landmark Dates in the History of
Higher Education for Women in England
1096 The earliest record of Oxford as a centre of teaching and learning. It is the first university in the English-speaking world.
1209 The University of Cambridge is (one could argue) indirectly founded by an Oxford woman, when scholars are banished from Oxford for her manslaughter, and decide to settle by the Cam.
1673 Bathsua Makin publishes An Essay to Revive the Antient Education of Gentlewomen.
1694/7 Mary Astell’s A Serious Proposal to the Ladies appears, suggesting a type of university education for women.
1750s–70s The heyday of the original Bluestockings, led by Elizabeth Montagu: mostly women, meeting in one another’s houses to discuss literature, philosophy, art, and intellectual discourse.
1792 Mary Wollstonecraft’s Vindication of the Rights of Woman is published.
1826 The founding of University College, London (originally known as London University).
1829 The Governesses’ Mutual Assurance Society is established.
1830 Birkbeck College (then known as the London Mechanics’ Institute) admits women to lectures.
1832 Durham University is founded.
1841 Whitelands (teacher-training) College opens in London.
1847 London ‘Lectures to Ladies’ are instituted by Professor F. D. Maurice (whose sister is a governess).
1848 Queen’s College, London, is founded by Professor Maurice.
1849 Bedford College opens, later to become part of the University of London.
1850 North London Collegiate School opens.
1854 The Cheltenham Ladies’ College opens.
1854 The Oxford University Act removes the requirement for religious tests for BA students, thus widening access; the Act for Cambridge is passed in 1856.
1858 The English Woman’s Journal is first published, by the Ladies of Langham Place.
1863 Girls are allowed to attempt Cambridge ‘Junior Local’ examinations.
1864 The North of England Council for Promoting the Higher Education of Women is established by Josephine Butler and Anne Jemima Clough.
1865 Cambridge ‘Local’ examinations are formally opened to girls.
1867 The University Extension Scheme administers lectures in Liverpool and Manchester, to which women are admitted.
1868 The Taunton Commission reports damningly on the education of girls in England.
1869 Cambridge ‘Higher Local’ examinations come into being, for both sexes.
Emily Davies sets up an academic community at Benslow House, Hitchin, later to become Girton College, Cambridge (1873).
1871 Teaching Fellows at Oxford and Cambridge are allowed to marry, so the higher reaches of academia cease to be male preserves.
A community of five women students is founded by Henry Sidgwick and Anne Clough in Cambridge; it develops into Newnham College.
1872 The Girls’ Public Day School Trust is founded.
1874 London School of Medicine for Women opens.
1875 Oxford ‘Higher Local’ examinations come into being.
1876 The Enabling Act technically allows the admission of women to universities.
1878 London University is the first to admit women undergraduates on the same terms as men. The first degrees are awarded in the summer of 1880.
The Association for the Education of Women in Oxford is founded, and is responsible for the administration of ‘Home Students’ (local women) from 1879. (In 1952, the Society of Home Students coalesces into St Anne’s College.)
1879 Somerville Hall (later College) and Lady Margaret Hall open in Oxford.
1881 Women are allowed to sit Cambridge Tripos (but not officially to graduate).
Victoria University incorporates colleges at Manchester, Liverpool, and Leeds, and admits women undergraduates.
1881 Nottingham becomes a co-educational university college.
1882 Westfield College, London, opens.
1883 Bristol becomes a co-educational university college.
1884 Oxford degree examinations are opened to women (but no certificate is awarded to those who pass).
1886 St Hugh’s College, Oxford, is founded.
Royal Holloway College, London, opens.
1892 Reading awards London University degrees to women.
1893 St Hilda’s College opens in Oxford.
1895 Durham allows women degrees.
1895 The London School of Economics opens.
1897 Sheffield awards London University degrees to men and women.
1901 Exeter becomes a co-educational university college. Birmingham University awards men and women degrees.
1902 The ‘Ladies’ Department’ at King’s College, London, awards degrees.
Southampton University College is founded.
1907 Imperial College, London, opens.
1908 Edith Morley of Reading becomes the first woman university professor in England.
1915 Queen Mary College becomes part of the University of London.
1919 The Sex Disqualification Removal Act.
1920 Women are awarded degrees at Oxford.
1923 Women students at Cambridge are admitted to university lectures by right, rather than by privilege.
1927 Hull and Leicester University Colleges are founded.
1948 Women students at Cambridge are officially allowed to graduate.
1959 The five women’s ‘societies’ at Oxford (Somerville, Lady Margaret Hall, St Hugh’s, St Hilda’s, and St Anne’s) finally become full members of the university.
Acknowledgements
The best thing about writing this book has been the opportunity to meet so many inspiring people. I have corresponded with or interviewed some 120 erstwhile bluestockings, all of whom welcomed my questions and gave generously of their time and memories. None was younger than her mid-eighties; the eldest were proud centenarians. Without exception I found their courtesy and spirit hugely uplifting, and I must thank them all.
I am also grateful to the friends and families of women who graduated before the Second World War for responding so readily to requests for information and reminiscences. I make no apology for the length of these lists, and hope those named will forgive the lack of titles or letters showing academic achievement. It might look a bit impersonal, but shouldn’t imply any want of respect or gratitude. This book is more theirs, after all, than mine.
So: for all their help, and for permission to quote from correspondence and interviews, I should like to thank: Diana Allen (née Wimberly); Mary Applebey; Joan Bayes (for Miriam, Elsie, Rose, and Dolly Morris); Gordon Bebb (for Gwyneth Bebb); Ruth Beesley (née Ridehalgh); Martha Camfield (née Kempner); Michael Crump; Clare Currey (for Ruth Wilson); Barbara, Lady Dainton; Lucy de Burgh (née Addey); Katherine Duncan-Jones (for Elsie Phare); Kathleen Edwards; Hugh Epstein (for Mary Noake); Robin Fabel (for Mariana Beer); Barbara Fletcher; Patrick Frazer (for Cynthia Stenhouse); Grace and Julie Fredericks; Norah Frost (for Sarah Beswick); Hilda Gaskell; Edith Gersay (née Wood); Dilys Glynne (for Dilys Lloyd Davies); Carolyn Greet (for Nora Wilde); Mary Grice (née Plant); Barbara Groombridge (for Marjorie Collet-Brown); Beryl Harding; Constance Hayball (née Houghton); Daphne Hope Brink (née Harvey); Barbara Hutton (née Britton); Leta Jones; John Killick (for Emma Mason); Tom Lester (for Sarah Mason); Daphne Levens (née Hanschell); Ceridwen Lloyd-Morgan (for Joan); Hazel Lowery (née Bray); Frederick Macdonald (for Louisa and Isabella Macdonald); Anne Milner (for Christine Burrows); Helen Nicholson (for Ivy Beatrice
Jenkins); Angela Nosley (née Allen); Audrey Orr; Rosalind Page; Christina Roaf (née Drake); Dominica Roberts; Jane Robson (for Honoria Ford); Geoff Seale (for Stella Pigrome); Mary Tyndall; Myles Varcoe (for Rachel Footman); Harlan Walker (for Katie Rathbone, née Dixon); Pippa Warren (for Kathleen Proud); Rosalind Willatts (for Edna Green); the late Hannah Winegarten (née Cohen) and her family; Beatrice Worthing; Diana Young (née Murray); Rosina Mary Young (née Stevens); and Marie-Luise Ziegler (née Haardt).
For colouring in the background, I am indebted to: Mary Abraham; Prudence Addison; Alex Aldrich-Blake; Bob Anderson; Jane Anderson; Hilary Arnold; Charles Arthur; Joan Aubrey Jones; Phyllis Austin; Ian Aveson; Simon Baguley; Mary Berry; Cindi Birkle; Joan Blyth; Vivian Bone; Helen Boon; Irene Boss; Elaine Bound; Sibyl Boyes; Gaynor Bramhall; Winifred Brancker; Anne Brew; Christine Bridgen; Barbara Briggs; Tony Bron; Margaret Bruce; Joan Carter; Dorothy Chadburn; Clemency Chapman; Violet Chell; Robyn Christie; Joyce Clifton; Penny Cloutte; Joan Coates; Mary Corran; Margaret Cosgrave; Hester Crombie; Valerie Crowson; Sarah Curtis; John Dainton; Brian Davis; Jacqueline de Trafford; Elizabeth Dimmock; Caroline Essame; Yvonne Fox; Anne Francis; Eileen Fraser; Phyllis Firth; Jean Glover; Helen Goodliffe; Joanna Gordon; Robin Gordon-Walker; Helen Gray; Christopher Grimaldi; Isobel Grundy; Celia Haddon; Anne Haward; Jocelyn Hemming; Sylvia Hiller; Barbara Horsfield; William Horwood; Sr Anna Howley; Noel Ing; Paul Jeffery; Barbara Jones; Sally King; Mary Kirkman; Janet Lambley; David Le Tocq; Jenny Lister; Cindi Lockett; Esther Lucas; Margaret Macdonald; Margaret Macpherson; Deborah Manley; Annette Marshall; Christine Martin; Margaret Matthews; Sarah McCabe; Mary Midgley; Anne Mille; Margaret Morgan; Jane Morris-Jones; Helen Mortimer; Lionel Munby; Nina Nathan; Frederick Nicolle; Joyce Openshaw; Clare Passingham; Anthony Peabody; Jonathan Peacock; Barbara Pease; Lucy Pollard; Helena Port; Cora Portillo; Rosemary Pountney; Dorothy Price; Barbara Raban; Margaret Ralphs; Elizabeth Rattenbury; Joyce Reynolds; Edith Rhodes; Jean Ross; Timothy Scott; Frances Sellers; Mother Serafima; Alison Sims; Gilia Slocock; Sally Smith; Eileen Steel; Nell Steele; Diana Stephens; Olivia Stevenson; Elizabeth Strevens; Joan Stubbings; Noel Sumner; Angela Swetenham; Celia Tate; Charlotte Tester; John Theak-stone; Sir Crispin Tickell; Michael Toothill; Barbara Twigg; Kathleen Ward; Sheila Ward; John Warren; Selby Whittingham; Joan Wilson; Olive Withycombe; Dorothy Wood; Joe Woolwich; Maisie ‘Pip’ Wray; and M. Yates.
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