Women, Higher Education and Equality: The Introduction of Co-education at Oxford University – adapted from a talk by Florence Smith. 

The journey towards equality for women in education is a long one. The first women’s colleges at Oxford University were Somerville and Lady Margaret Hall, both founded in 1879. However, women were not full members of the university and their qualifications were not formally recognised until 1920. The first co-educational Oxford colleges – those allowing both men and women to attend – began operating after 1974. Researching women’s relationship to higher education in 20th-century Britain through the introduction of co-educational colleges at the University of Oxford represents a useful way of understanding their journey towards equality.

The history of education is strongly linked to political and social history, as changing attitudes towards women and the rise of second-wave feminism in 1970s Britain aided in increasing educational equality. Carol Dyhouse argues that the 1970s represented a turning point in women’s participation in British higher education. It was a period of increased access, as a larger number of places became open to women. Oxford’s move to co-education can be seen as a part of this trend.

However, historians who examine this period often look at the structural changes made within institutions. The experiences of women in co-educational Oxford can be better understood through a type of historical research called oral history, which helps us hear the stories and narratives of people who are often left out of the traditional narratives of history. Oral histories can help answer more personal questions. What was women’s personal experience of higher education? Did these institutions actually create a space where women could have an equal experience to a male student? And what was the outcome of this – did the women attending university during this period have similar experiences in the job market to their male peers?

Before 1974 there were only 5 women’s colleges. This meant that much fewer women could attend Oxford university than men. There were many discussions about the structure of Oxford colleges throughout the 1960s and 1970s, with people asking whether the current system was unfair, and if co-education was a way that the university could be open to more women. This debate not only took place among the university colleges, but also caught the attention of the wider public. Due to its reputation and academic power, the political elite in Britain was highly invested in Oxford University as an institution.

In the summer of 1972, it was decided that five colleges would become co-educational. In Autumn 1974: Jesus, Wadham, Brasenose, Hertford and St Catherine’s. However, there were limits to this progress. At the start, each college was only allowed up to 25 women each. Many scholars who have studied this period of higher education focus on the institutional changes, and therefore often end their histories at the moment that women entered the colleges. But what about the experience of co-education for the women themselves? Oral histories help us understand Oxford colleges as both physical spaces and communities for people, and explore how these communities reacted to the introduction of women.

Women’s experiences of co-education are not well explored because many of the histories of co-education used official documents – college reports, newspapers, etc. But these sources do not offer an insight into the personal experiences of the women who attended the co-educational colleges in this period. Oral history is a form of research methodology which can provide the key to understanding these experiences. Many of the women who attended co-educational colleges in the 1970s are still alive, so it is possible to interview them directly about their lives at Oxford and find out about this period of history first hand.

The key issue is the fact that people forget things. No one remembers everything that happened to them throughout their lives. The memory we do have is also selective. What we remember or forget, even subconsciously, is often linked to our own evaluation of what is significant in our lives and what is not. We therefore need to recognise that an oral account will never be fully comprehensive or accurate.

However, this is arguably true of most historical sources. No account will tell you everything about what happened in the past, and no account can be written without some kind of perspective or angle which will shape its narrative. The complexities of oral history are therefore similar to those of other types of historical research.

More specific to oral history are the complexities of the interview as a form of research. The questions that an interviewer asks will often shape the things the interviewee tells them. The interviewer may ask about some things and not others, and therefore the narrative told will take a certain shape. An oral historian conducting an interview has to be very conscious of the kind of questions they are asking and the way in which they are asking them.

All these complexities are all part of something called Oral History Theory. Researchers using this kind of methodology can use theory to think on a deeper level about the information that they gain through their interviews, helping them offer more nuanced insights into their material.

Oral history is a kind of historical research that pretty much anyone can do. Lots of people do oral history without even knowing that they’re doing it. If you’ve ever talked to your friends and family about their past experiences, then you’ve participated in a form of oral history!

Further Reading:

In 1972, the New York Times published a news article on the 5 Oxford colleges which were becoming co-educational in 1974. It provides an insightful glimpse into the public opinion of women attaining a higher education, and if single sex colleges were still preferred at this point. By the 1970s many educational institutions had become co-educational, however the change at Oxford and Cambridge was still highly divisive given their long history. You can read the article here for free.

If you want to have a look at the history of women’s educational access in the UK since the medieval period and its evolution over time, then we recommend having a look at this article . You can access it by clicking here. For a more political piece on the state of education inequality on the basis of sex across the world and some of the actions being taken to tackle this as well as the role of technology in reducing this divide then watch this TedTalk by Wanda Bedard. You can access the talk by clicking here.