Talk:Isaline Blew Horner

Academic degress and OBE
The statements about her degrees can't be correct as they stand. Believe it or not, Cambridge University didn't allow women to receive degrees till about 1948. I'm not sure what the correct wording is. Maybe something like "was declared to have satisfied the examiners as having reached degree standard".

As regards the date of her award, this may be simply the difference between the date it was gazetted (from which point she had the right to put the letters after her name) & the date of actual investiture. Peter jackson (talk) 10:48, 21 August 2008 (UTC)


 * Hi Peter -
 * Thanks for the helpful and interesting points!
 * Not that I'm disagreeing with what you write but I'm just trying to figure out how to integrate your information about the academic degrees and the following statement from Cambridge (at http://www.ames.cam.ac.uk/faclib/archive/horner.html):
 * She was educated at Prior's Field, Surrey, and Newnham College, Cambridge, BA, 1917, MA, 1934.
 * Given your knowledge, it's curious (for me at least) to try to figure out what Cambridge means here. In short though, practically speaking, however you might want to change it is fine with me.
 * Thanks too for the information regarding OBE procedures. I'm obviously clueless about such.  Perhaps the end note should just be delete as obfuscating?  Whatever you think is best is fine with me.
 * Thanks again, Larry Rosenfeld (talk) 15:09, 21 August 2008 (UTC)


 * The university article says women were given "titular degrees", which didn't count as proper degrees. The problem is that we need sources, & she wasn't prominent enough to be in standard biographical references. Peter jackson (talk) 08:22, 23 August 2008 (UTC)


 * Interesting. So, in terms of this article, I wonder what the best solution would be at this time. Larry Rosenfeld (talk) 15:26, 23 August 2008 (UTC)


 * FWIW, I've change the "received ... a B.A." language to "awarded the title of a B.A." with a new end note alluding to the whole "title"/"degree" thing (e.g., at http://www.newn.cam.ac.uk/about/about_history3.shtml it mentions "... in Cambridge the women went down to defeat again in 1921, having to settle for the titles - the much-joked-about BA tit - but not the substance of degrees.") Obviously, I still don't think I grasp the matter correctly, but I think this change might help.  If you think of something better still, please suggest it here or, of course, feel free to make the appropriate edit.  Nice catch. Regards, Larry Rosenfeld (talk) 03:27, 24 August 2008 (UTC)