Celebrating 50 years of women at
Churchill College
October 2022 was the 50th anniversary of the arrival of the first women undergraduate students at Churchill College.
The College was the first Cambridge men’s College to admit women and this is the story behind that historic decision.
Women at Cambridge
In the late 19th century, an increasing number of women wished to study at Cambridge. The existing men-only Colleges refused to admit them so, in 1869, Emily Davies founded Girton College, the first women’s College at Cambridge and the first in the country to offer residential higher education to women. Two more women-only Colleges followed - Newnham College and New Hall (now Murray Edwards) College.
In 1884, Agnata Ramsey went up to Girton College where she read Classics. In her final examinations in 1887, she was the only candidate to be awarded a first in the Classical tripos, placing her above all of her fellow (male) students. She was still denied a degree by the University. This was marked by a cartoon in Punch.
The University finally began to grant degrees to women in 1948. For more on this, visit The Rising Tide exhibition.
Fast forward to the late 1950s
Once the University had agreed to the formation of a new College in honour of Sir Winston Churchill in the late 1950s, work began on establishing not only where it should be built but on who it should admit and what they should study.
Sir Winston had voiced his concerns about the UK falling behind and a wish to emulate the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in a speech in 1949. Others in the UK had also been looking to establish a new higher education college to provide greater numbers of scientists, mathematicians, and engineers but plans to establish such a place at Cranfield had failed to materialise. These two lines of thought came together, creating a new College with a 70:30 admission of sciences, maths and engineering to arts and humanities written into its charter.
While the subjects for study were confirmed relatively quickly, the question of who should study at Churchill College took a little longer. Sir Winston himself was in favour of admitting women and the trustees received correspondence such as the letter opposite, urging him and them forward in this line of thinking.
Sadly, it was not to be
Despite Sir Winston’s personal preference and public support for the admission of women, the University refused to change its statutes. So, in 1959, Churchill College’s first cohort of students (male postgraduates) matriculated.
Reproduced with permission of Curtis Brown, London on behalf of the Estate of Winston S. Churchill © The Estate of Winston S. Churchill
But that was only the beginning
Times were changing nationally and the repercussions were felt even within the slow-changing world of the University. In 1964, the opening of the College’s Dining Hall had been celebrated with a dinner at which women were present.
By October 1965, Churchill College’s trustees (now the College Council) were already debating whether they could re-open the question of the admission of women. The Council took an in-depth look at the implications of such a move, ranging from alterations to facilities such as creating ironing/sewing rooms and adding long mirrors to wardrobe doors, to whether such a move might be resented by the women-only colleges. In September 1966, Queen Elizabeth II in Council approved the appropriate amendment to the College’s charter “in order to allow the admission of women”.
On 13 March 1969 and after lengthy consultations, the College Council made its decision. From October 1972, Churchill College would be co-educational. Up to forty women undergraduates would be admitted per year while the total number of undergraduates would be increased to eighty to minimise the impact on the number of men. It would be the first men-only Cambridge College to admit women.
From strength to strength
In 1970, Churchill College admitted its first female Fellow, Dr. Daphne Osborne. Dr. Osborne (pictured) acted as tutor for women undergraduates alongside her own academic work. Her College papers are held by the College Archive.
In 1971, two more female Fellows (Alison Finch and Pat Wright) joined her at Churchill College.
In 1972, the first mixed undergraduate cohort matriculated at Churchill College. While Churchill College had been the first men-only College to decide to admit women, other Colleges quickly followed. 1972 also saw the first mixed cohorts at King’s and Clare Colleges. Magdalene College was the last men-only College, finally admitting women in 1988.
For more on this, visit the Churchill College website.
And into the future
Today, Churchill College works hard to maintain a gender-balanced intake. 2022 represented the third year in a row that this has been achieved with 49% of this year’s cohort identifying as female and 51% as male, based on their UCAS data.
Churchill College is particularly proud of this because the College is bound by statute to a 70:30% STEM to arts and humanities ratio and women remain under-represented in STEM at both school and university. The College continually seeks to redress this imbalance, not least through the work of the Master, Professor Dame Athene Donald, pictured below.
Churchill College 2022 cohort at their matriculation photograph