In 1897, a proposal was put before Cambridge University’s Senate to grant full degrees to female graduates. Male students responded with outrage.
The image above shows the scene in the market square on the day of the debate. An effigy of a woman on a bicycle was suspended out of the window of a building opposite the Senate. Banners reading “No Gowns for Girtonites” and “Varsity for Men” flew alongside it. The lady cyclist in her rational costume was a readily recognised symbol of the new woman whose entrance into higher education the male students resented.
At the time of the protest, women were permitted to study at Cambridge, but were not granted full degrees. Newnham and Girton Colleges for women opened in the 1870s, and in 1881 women gained the right to write the Tripos examination. The 1897 ruling would have admitted women as full members of the university.
The resolution did not, however, pass. Upon hearing this result, the triumphant mob tore down the effigy. They then savagely attacked the mannequin, decapitating it and tearing it to pieces in a wild frenzy. The shredded remains of the poor lady cyclist were later stuffed through the gates of Newnham College.
Women studying at Cambridge University were not to receive the titles of full degrees until 1921, and even then it was without associated privileges. Finally in 1947 Cambridge degrees were granted on equal terms for men and women.
Sources:
Image: Cambridge Daily News, 21 May 1897.
Kathleen McCrone, Sport and the Physical Emancipation of English Women, 1870-1914. (London: Routledge, 1988)
Jane Robinson, Bluestockings: The Remarkable Story of the First Women to Fight for an Education. (London: Penguin, 2009)
Further Reading on the Blog
Cycling…errr…Walking with Women, Cambridge This post looks further into the 1897 Cambridge protest lady cyclist effigy, which I covered for Shape East’s “Walking with Women” local history tour of Cambridge told through women’s stories.
