Women officially enter the University of Oxford on 7 October 1920. Then 130 students take part in the first matriculation ceremony at the Divinity School and become full members of one of the oldest university institutions in the world.
The event is the culmination of decades of struggle for access to higher education. Women began studying at Oxford as early as 1879, when “Lady Margaret Hall“ and “Somerville“ were created, but for a long time they remained outside the official composition of the university. They could attend classes and take examinations, but they could not matriculate and receive a degree from Oxford.
The Road to Resolution
In 1910, the university established a Women's Student Delegation and admitted women to Oxford. However, the change did not give them equal status with men. With the passage of the British Sex Disqualification Act in 1919, the legal obstacle to universities admitting women to membership, degrees, and academic positions was removed. In February 1920, Oxford approved the preamble to a statute governing the admission of women.
At the first ceremony, the female students arrived at their colleges, accompanied by their heads. “This is the proudest moment of my life – "You are historic figures, the first women to be matriculated at this leading university in the world," said Henrietta Jacks Blake, head of Lady Margaret Hall.
The first degrees were awarded a week later
On October 14, 1920, at the Sheldonian Theatre, women were admitted to university degrees for the first time. At the ceremony, 50 women received degrees - 29 were admitted to both bachelor's and master's degrees, two received degrees in literature, one in civil law, one in natural science, and 19 were admitted to bachelor's degrees.
Among the first graduates were heads of women's colleges, teachers, administrators, and women associated with educational and social reform. Also included is Annie Mary Ann Henley Rogers, who had passed her exams with distinction as early as 1877 and 1879, but did not receive an official Oxford degree until after the 1920 change.
The change did not mean immediate equality. In 1920 and 1921, a total of 1,159 women matriculated at the university, but in 1927 Oxford introduced a quota that limited the number of female students. It was not abolished until 1957, and women's colleges were granted full status, equal to men's, in 1959.
Sources: theguardian.com