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I. LETTERS ON THE ADMISSION OF

WOMEN TO OXFORD

Case was interested in women's education, and was one of the first Oxford tutors to give lectures to them. He soon, however, came to the conclusion that an increase in the facilities for women's education at Oxford would change the peculiar character of the University as a 'men's university'.

Since 1879 two balls for women had existed in Oxford-Somerville and Lady Margaret. Before this time, however (since 1875), women above the age of eighteen had been admitted to the examinations of the Delegacy of Local Examinations, which were really school-leaving certificate examinations. In 1884 it was proposed to admit women to certain of the examinations for the Degree of B.A., without giving them any claim to a degree. Accordingly a form of statute admitting women to Honour Moderations and to the Final Honour Schools of Mathematics, Modern History, and Natural Science was introduced in Convocation on April 29. On the morning of the same day Case published his first letter on women's education in The Times'. The proposed statute was approved in Convocation on this day by 464 placets to 321 non-placets.

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By the year 1894 all the examinations of the University leading to the degree of B.A. had been opened to women. They were not, however, permitted to supplicate for a degree until 1920.

FROM The Times, APRIL 29, 1884.

May I claim a space in your columns in order to impress on non-resident members of Convocation the magnitude of the issue which has to be determined for the whole future of Oxford?

The proposed statute appears to be a proposal merely to admit women to the examinations of men. It will really give women a superiority over men. In the first place, it puts the examiners, so far, and only so far, as women are concerned, under the Delegates of Local Examinations who shall make arrangements for using the honour examinations'. and any arrangements so made shall be carried out by the examiners'. These are wide powers. A

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sample of their use will probably be the abolition of viva voce for women as unsuitable to their nervous system. Secondly, among the arrangements for women are to be some 'by which candidates may offer some part or section of the subjects of examination without being required to offer the whole'. Now, the statute is so badly drawn that, literally interpreted, it would enable such candidates to claim a place in the class list. But, in any case, it gives to women a special examination in part of an honour school, and awards to those who succeed a certificate of merit from the honour examiners; whereas, if a man does not offer the whole of the subjects in an honour examination, his only resource is a pass. This is an intolerable injustice. Thirdly, the proposed statute enables a woman to go in for an honour examination in the final schools without matriculation and without passing moderations. But these conditions are necessary to the standard of the final honour examinations, because they are the means by which the University ensures that the candidates shall all have about the same time to come up to the standard. No one shall be admitted as a candidate in any honour school after the lapse of 16 terms from the term of his matriculation." This is what the University says to men in the existing statutes. But in the proposed statute it does not say it to women, because it does not say that they shall matriculate. A man must matriculate, then pass moderations, and then go in for a final honour examination within four years. A woman will be able to read for honours from one end of her life to the other. If the proposed statute is passed, I can imagine a lady coming up to Oxford, marrying a Don, and getting a first class in a green old age.

The University will be in a dilemma if it passes this statute. If it stops short after passing this statute, it will commit the injustice of giving women

rights which it denies to men; and by making matters easier for women, and especially by giving them an indefinite time to read for honours, it will make the thing a sham, even for women, because it will be only in appearance that they come up to the standard of men. If, on the other hand, the University passes the statute and then tries to correct its inequalities, it can only ensure that women have an equal time with men in reading for final honours by matriculating them and making them pass modera

tions. Admission to the honour examinations must entail admission to the University. We shall go through a succession of statutes for women, matriculation, moderations, incorporation of their halls. Will the University then be able to refuse a degree? No. To let a woman go as far as the examinations necessary for a degree and then refuse the mere name of B.A. would be like postulating a three-sided figure and then refusing to call it a triangle. So far I have attacked the inequality and incompleteness of the proposed statute. statute. But I ask members of Convocation to consider the general question of the effect which will come sooner or later from admitting women into a University of

men.

In the first place, it must re-act on the examinations. Finding that women cannot come up to the standard of men, the University will gradually have to reduce the standard of men to that which can be

attained by women. Still more disastrous will be the effect on the life of Oxford, which is now not only a place of learning but a school of manliness. People seem to me to be playing with this subject. They say that a few women will make no difference. But we must be serious, and contemplate a time when, if we open the door now, the University will be as full of women as of men. They will be young women and young men; nothing will keep them

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apart. Young men will learn what young women like. Sound learning and the midnight lamp will be succeeded by light literature and the art of conversation at tea-parties. Young men will play at what young women like; the University Park will become a huge lawn-tennis ground, and the river a series of expeditions to Nuneham. Young women will also make some attempt to become manly, and will end in making themselves inferior men. Hercules will again spin wool and Omphale again don the lion's skin. The virility of the University will be gone. Worse still, the Proctorial discipline will be endangered. People point to the experience of Cambridge. But we have no experience on this subject, because women have not yet come up to the University in large numbers. A few women can be secluded in halls; but, when there are many, the Universities possess no force which can keep young men from mixing with young women. The fact is that the scheme is only manageable while it is on a small scale. The more it becomes a success, the more it must be a failure. Oxford, April 25, 1884.

FROM The Times, NOVEMBER 6, 1890.

THE PROPOSED STATUTE FOR ADMITTING WOMEN TO MEDICAL EXAMINATIONS IN OXFORD

The form of statute proposing to admit women to the Examination for the Degree of Bachelor of Medicine was rejected in Congregation (through which a statute must pass before being brought before Convocation) on Tuesday, November 18, 1890; the voting was, placets 75, non-placets 79. The Regius Professor of Medicine referred to on p. 36 was Sir Henry Acland, Bart.

Later, in 1917, a statute of the University permitted women to take the First Examination for the Degree of Bachelor of Medicine. The statute of 1920 admitted to all degrees except those in Theology. They had, however, been admitted to the Honour examination in Theology from the year 1893.

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