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, 26 October, 29 October, 30 October and 13 November. That same year, on 7 October, women also became eligible for admission as full members of the university.

Before 1920, it is estimated that around 4,000 women studied at Oxford since the opening of Lady Margaret Hall, the university's first women's college, in 1879. The first woman unofficially accepted at Oxford was Annie Rogers, who took undergraduate courses from 1875 to 1877; she was finally given her degree in 1920, when she was 64 years old. The last survivor of the 1920 conferral ceremonies was Constance Savery who died at the age of 101 in 1999.

History


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 However, when the university realised she was female, they rescinded her offer and her place was given to the boy who had come sixth in the tests.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. In response to the controversy caused by Rogers' story, the university passed a statute in 1875 allowing examinations for women at roughly undergraduate level; Rogers was able to sit the examinations for women in 1877, giving her the equivalent of first-class marks in Classics and Ancient History.

In June 1878, the Association for the Education of Women (AEW) was formed, aiming for the eventual creation of a college for women in Oxford. The first women's college at Oxford, Lady Margaret Hall, opened that same year, followed by Somerville Hall and the Society of Oxford Home-Students (later known as St Anne's College) in 1879. Two more women's colleges would open before 1900: St Hugh's Hall in 1886 and St Hilda's Hall in 1893. Until 1957, there was a quota system which limited the number of women admitted to Oxford. The five women's colleges were not given equal status to men's colleges until 1959.

Though allowed to sit for exams, women did not receive degrees after their studies had finished. By 1895, Oxford and the University of Cambridge were the only universities in the United Kingdom to deny women degrees. The first vote to give Oxford women degrees in 1896 was unsuccessful. In order to receive degrees, for a brief period in the early 1900s, some women received ad eundem degrees from Trinity College Dublin, which began admitting women in 1904 and had an arrangement with both Oxford and Cambridge. 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.

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.

It would be another ten years of campaigning before women were finally admitted as full members. The first degree ceremony followed at the Sheldonian Theatre on 14 October 1920. Amongst those receiving their degrees were the principals of the women's colleges, former students, female tutors and administrators, and women prominent in the educational and reform movements during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Between 1920 and 1921, a total of 1,159 women were matriculated.