Higher Education and Women in the United Kingdom

Introduction:

Although higher education has been available in the United Kingdom for a long time, women were not as privileged as men to be educated equally. Brown (2011C) finds that 70% of men were educated compared to only 55% of women in 1851. These days, the situation seems to be inconsistent with the past as there are 10% more women entering into universities than men in 2010-2011. Moreover, there seems to be almost twice as many female students than male students. (Ratcliffe,2013). This essay aims to give a timeline of the key events that led to the equality of women in higher education as well as when degrees were awarded to women on Oxford and Cambridge.

History and statistics

According to the research shown by Brown (2011C), the population of women was rising gradually from 1036 per 1000 males in 1821 to 1054 per 1000 males in 1871. This meant that there would be unmarried women who would have to support themselves. Women had very limited career choices and most of them relied on being governesses to earn a living. Gillard (2011) notes that children received similar education to boys prior to the introduction of the 1870 Education Act which stressed a curriculum where girls should be taught domestic skills. Education for women in the beginning of the Victorian era was inadequate and inconsistent as girls were taught by private governesses who were untrained. (Gillard,2011)

The beginning of the movement

Jones (2012) mentioned that the Ladies of Langham Place Group believed that education for the middle-class woman was a hardship as they were taught by untrained governesses. The Langham Place Group consisted of Emily Davies, Elizabeth Garrett and Millicent Garrett and other women. This group analysed vari...

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...s important. To work within the word limit, I had to also pick events that I felt were important. I had to narrow down the events that I wanted to include in my essay and the significant people that helped make the change. I was also unable to discuss the other universities that restricted the admission of women.

In conclusion, equality for higher education for women did not come quick and easy. It was the hard work of many women. It also involved a change of mindset in people. Women had their degrees recognised by Cambridge in 1948, after over a hundred years since the movement began in 1843. As seen in the research conducted in this essay, people in the past were prejudiced against women attaining higher education. Oxford and Cambridge being the top universities in the country failed to see the importance of educating women and men equally until the mid 1900s.