Fifty Years of Women at Wadham
The first female students matriculated at Wadham College in 1974. In 2024, we mark the 50th anniversary of this milestone, which helped to create the diverse and inclusive student body that we have today.
Celebrating 50 Years of Women at Wadham
All alumnae and alumni were warmly invited to join us for an event on 21 September as we celebrated and reflected on this significant milestone.
Find out moreWadham College matriculation photo, 1974
The Long Road to Coeducation
The first Oxford colleges were established in the 13th century. For more than 500 years, only male students could attend. Although the first female students did not arrive at Wadham until the latter half of the 20th century, women made their mark here long before then.
Women at Wadham
Dorothy Wadham (1534-1618), daughter of Sir William Petre.
Wadham College was founded by a woman – Dorothy Wadham – in 1610, to honour the dying wish of her husband, Nicholas. Dorothy's statue, with those of Nicholas and of King James I of England and VI of Scotland, watches over our front Quad today. Dorothy was a formidable woman of 75. She fought all the claims of Nicholas's relations, lobbied at court, negotiated the purchase of a site and drew up the college statutes. She appointed the first Warden, Fellows and Scholars, as well as the college cook, and the college was ready for opening within four years of Nicholas's death. Although ahead of her time, Dorothy managed Wadham from her home in Exeter and never visited the College. She added considerably to the endowment from her own resources, and kept tight control of its affairs until her death in 1618.
Pseudo Dorothy
There are many images of Dorothy Wadham in College. However, the ‘Pseudo Dorothy’ in the Warden’s Lodgings is not one of them. A Jacobean portrait of an unknown woman of some standing has been cut from an oak panel and mounted in a hardwood surround along with a separate fragment of the original panel bearing an inscription (dated 1611). Bought by Lord Birkenhead, and believed to be of the foundress, Dorothy Wadham, the portrait was given to the College by Sir John Simon on Birkenhead's death in 1930. The age of the sitter, revealed on cleaning showed her to be too young to be Dorothy and the portrait became known as 'Pseudo Dorothy.'
Dorothy's Lip - special 50th anniversary edition of Wadham's student-run feminist magazine
Dorothy's Lip first published in 1994 and continued until 2016.
Wadham's SU Women*'s Officers plan to revive Dorothy's Lip by creating a special edition to mark the 50th anniversary of the first women students being admitted to Wadham. They hope to include content from students, alumni, and academic and non-academic staff, so that this anniversary edition of Wadham's very own feminist magazine will involve the whole college community.
Submissions are invited from all College members by the deadline of 20 December 2024. Please complete this form and get creating!
Share your ideas for Dorothy's Lip
Dorothy's Lip celebrated 25 years of coeducation with a special issue
Read the 1999 issue of Dorothy's Lip, celebrating the silver anniversary of women students at Wadham.
Oxford's first Women's Colleges are founded
Photo of the five Principals © Lady Margaret Hall
Female students arrived in Oxford with the foundation of the first women's colleges, Somerville, Lady Margaret Hall and St Anne's in 1879. St Hugh's followed in 1886 and the last of the women's colleges, St Hilda's, opened its doors in 1893.
The first matriculation ceremony for women took place on 7 October 1920. The degree of M.A was first conferred by decree of Convocation on the five Principals of the women’s colleges and the societies of women students in Oxford; Miss Emily Penrose, OBE, Miss Henrietta Jex Blake, Miss Eleanor Frances Jourdain and Miss Winifred Horsburgh Moberly and Mrs Bertha Johnson.
The process of introducing coeducation
The process of introducing coeducation at Oxford University began in 1968 when Wadham’s JCR passed a resolution in favour of it. This began with a nem con – no-one disagreeing - motion in the JCR in a house of 55, on 4 December 1968. There was still a long way to go, however. The College created a subcommittee to investigate. In March 1970, its report stated that ‘a reservoir of well-qualified women’ currently not applying and being admitted to Oxford ‘could be tapped to raise the academic standards’ at the university.‘
Wadham’s governing body met in October 1970 and requested detailed schemes for the admission of women. An ‘exploratory discussion’ took place at The Queen’s College on 3 December 1970, with the 18 men’s colleges all taking part. The group decided to constitute a ‘working party' that included Brasenose, Magdalen, New, St Catherine’s, and Wadham College. Convened by the Warden of Wadham, Stuart Hampshire, they planned to devise an admissions scheme that would be shown to the women’s colleges. More men’s colleges soon joined the group.
The working party met for the first time on 21 January 1971 and discussed ‘principles that might govern the admissions policy for mixed colleges,’ as well as the appointment of women fellows. The second meeting on 4 February brought together representatives from men’s colleges interested in co-residence and representatives from women’s colleges. It was agreed to set up a working group to address the main practical problem – admissions.
In late April 1971, the group recommended that in the first stage, 80-100 women should be admitted to three or four colleges. Oxford colleges needed the University’s approval to change their statutes. On 2 November 1971, Wadham’s Warden reported to the Vice Chancellor that the first men’s colleges proposed to do so. Another subcommittee was set up, with representatives from both men’s and women’s colleges. In February 1972, it recommended that about 100 women could be admitted and up to six men’s colleges could be involved. October 1974 was the target date for the first women to matriculate.
The Jesus Group (colleges’ committee on co-residence), comprising Jesus, Wadham, Brasenose, Hertford and St Catherine’s formed in 1972. The colleges needed two thirds of their GB members votes to change their statutes. On 24 April 1972, the Hebdomadal Council adopted the recommendations of the University committee on co-residence. Changes to colleges’ statutes were approved as a ‘closed experiment’ for five years. There was resistance to this. Some colleges outside the Jesus group raised four resolutions in May 1972 asking the council to annul its previous approval of changes in college statutes. All were defeated in Congregation.
Five Former Men's Colleges Admit Women
Planning could then proceed for the admission of women to the first five former men’s colleges in 1974. Wadham, Brasenose, St Catherine's, Jesus and Hertford all welcomed their first female students in Michaelmas term of that year. Wadham's first female JCR President, Sally Hornsby (1978, PPE), née Sarah Granger, was elected in 1979. Her friend, Jill Holden (1978, PPP), née Benson, remembers: "Sally was the first female JCR president at Wadham, a role in which gender, typically, both for her and the College, was of no importance at the time. She was the right person for the role." Sadly, Sally died in January 2005.
In 1984, the President of Wadham's Students' Union assessed the effect of this 'pioneering step'. Their conclusion was that '...in a decade, Wadham has benefitted from the introduction of women. The majority of College achievements in recent years are attributable to women alone, with Wadham having the women's 1st VIII head of the river, the first female blues cox, and a hard-hitting Women's Group, which has given a radical new outlook to Oxford politics.'
More former men’s and former women’s colleges soon followed the lead of the first five and by 2016 all constituent colleges and halls of the university were fully coeducational.
Women Students at Wadham
Daphne Dumont in 1974
Daphne Dumont was the first woman student to arrive at Wadham in Michaelmas term 1974.
Women's Eight at Christ Church Regatta in 1975.
Daphne Dumont (bow), Bryony Cottrell, Miranda Stone, Jackie Prince, Martine Ingerhousz, Mary Wilson, Julie Curtis (Captain), Beverly West (stroke), Nicky Lawson (cox). Photo courtesy of Oxford Mail and Times.
A Pictorial History of Women at Wadham
Women were part of the fabric of life at Wadham from its earliest days, as can be seen from our collection of portraits.
In preparing the College statues, Dorothy Wadham recognised that ‘Human nature is so prone and inclined to evil… that it is not in my power to frame laws and statutes which an astute and shifty man may not violate… though tied by Hercules himself’.
To safeguard the virtue of College members, all servants were to be male except for the launderess, Alice George. Alice was born in 1582 and, after the death of her husband, she lived in Little Clarendon Street as a servant of the College. Even she, as well as being of '...such age, condition, and reputation that there should be no chance of any evil suspicion lighting upon her', was allowed no further than the outside gate and only then on fixed days. Today, Mrs George's portrait hangs proudly in the Senior Common Room at Wadham College.
Frances Wells is pregnant (with the son who presented the portrait to the College) and is prominently displaying her wedding ring. The painter had been an undergraduate at Wadham and would have known the Wells from then. Frances Wells was prominent in working for women’s colleges in Oxford and in the infant welfare movement.
Edith Daniel, wife of Dr Humphrey Hody (Fellow, 1685 and benefactor), was painted by an unknown artist. This is the companion portrait to that of her husband.
Wadham's Diversity Project
Dorothy Wadham was the only woman who looked out from the wall of Wadham’s early 17th century Dining Hall until 2016. Former Warden of Wadham (2012 – 2021), Lord Ken Macdonald, led the Diversity Project with the aim of showcasing a more balanced selection of images across the College site. Five further portraits of women, taken by photographer, Michael Birt, were added to the Hall and more portraits of women fellows and alumnae were displayed around College.
More portraits, including a commission by photographer, Sophia Spring, were added to various locations across the College over the course of academic year 2015/16.
Today, the University of Oxford and all its colleges are diverse, inclusive spaces where everyone is welcome. We will continue to evolve and look forward to the next stage of our history.
MCR Committee at Wadham College, 2023/2024, with MCR President, Lara Mudarra
Sources include Wadham College 1610 - 2010 edited by Cliff Davies and Jane Garnett, 2009, Third Millennium Publishing, London; and "Keep the Damned Women Out" The Struggle for Coeducation by Nancy Weiss Malkiel, 2016, Princeton University Press
The 1974 Dorothy Wadham Travel Fund
To mark the 50th anniversary of co-education at Wadham, a group of alumnae who matriculated in 1974 have proposed creating a fund for travel grants to support students who embody the pioneering spirit of Dorothy Wadham. Find out more about the 1974 Dorothy Wadham Travel Fund here.