In 1878 the Association for the Higher Education of Women established itself with the goal of creating a college for women in Oxford. The exact religious orientation of the desired institution was a source of much debate and division resulting in a split and two colleges being formed. Lady Margaret Hall was to cater for Anglicans and Somerville Hall was to make no distinction on the grounds of belonging to different religious denominations.
Somerville Hall was named in 1879, after Mary Somerville, the influential Scottish mathematician who had recently died – it was renamed Somerville College in 1894. Mary was the first person to sign a parliamentary petition in support of women’s suffrage and strongly supported opening educational opportunities to women. She was largely self-taught and with the writing of such books ‘On the Connection of the Physical Sciences’, established a formidable reputation. (This book reached ten editions in her lifetime.) A portrait of Mary, by John Jackson, now hangs in the south end of the hall.
Producer of leading female politicians
The college was used as military hospital during World War I and used as accommodation for nurses from the nearby Radcliffe Infirmary in World War II. In 1959 it was finally admitted as a full college of Oxford University. The institution retained its all female status until 1992, when men were admitted. It has educated Indira Gandhi, former prime minister of India, along with Cornelia Sorabji, the first female Indian barrister. Margaret Thatcher, former Conservative prime minister of Britain, is perhaps Somerville’s best-known daughter. On the other side of the political fence the influential liberal Shirley Williams also studied at the college.
St John’s prov...
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Bohemian Jericho
All first-year undergrads and final year students can be housed on site, but the majority of second years have to fend for themselves. The food in hall is reasonably priced and of variable quality, but with it being ‘pay as you go’ discerning students have the option of nipping out to one of the trendy selection of nearby cafés.
The college library has a huge collection of over 120,000 books and is one of the very best in the university. It is open 24 hours a day to allow those who are most inspired by darkness to function at maximum capacity. During Trinity term the quad becomes one enormous living room, ‘Please keep off the grass’ signs being conspicuous by their absence. Pleasurable social activities such as croquet and frisbee co-exist with students working on their laptops and reading their course work. Quite simply idyllic!
“I think, with never-ending gratitude, that the young women of today do not and can never know at what price their right to free speech and to speak at all in public has been earned.” (www.doonething.org). Lucy Stone was born in West Brookfield, Massachusetts on August 13, 1818. Her parents, Francis Stone and Hannah Matthews, were abolitionists and Congregationalists. Stone retained their anti-slavery opinions but rejected the Congregationalist Church after it criticized abolitionists. Along with her anti-slavery attitude, Lucy Stone also pursued a higher education. She completed local schools at the age of sixteen and saved money until she could attend a term at Mount Holyoke Seminary five years later. In 1843, Stone enrolled at the Oberlin Collegiate Institute (later Oberlin College). With her graduation in 1847, she became the first Massachusetts woman to earn a bachelor’s degree. However, Lucy Stone was not done expressing her abolitionist and feminist beliefs to the public (anb.org).
The OU Sooner Housing Center (SHC) is comprised of three housing facilities (The Jefferson House, The Jones House, and the Bud Wilkinson House) and a dining hall (The Wagner Dining Hall) which creates a family-like environment solely for residents. The Jefferson House houses all female residents, while the Jones House and Bud Wilkinson (referred to as “the Bud”) houses all males. The Wagner dining hall provides meals services only for students, faculty, and staff living in the three Sooner Housing Center. The first floor of the Bud is the “community center” which provides computers, a television, sitting areas, Ping-Pong and pool tables, a laundry room, and a main office. In the past, the Bud served only as athletic housing, but by 1996, the houses were converted to shared housing for both athlete (49%) and non-athlete (51%) “The change from all athletic housing to shared on-campus housing was originally mandated by the NCAA rules. As a result, the OU Athletics Department decided to take a creative approach and provide quality housing for all students” (Sooner Sports NP).
After centuries of exclusion from the rest of society’s tasks, women decided to voice their opinions about their rights. In the early 19th century, the United States decided to reform the educational institutions, seeking to raise their standards. However, male students were the sole beneficiaries of this reform; women were not admitted into universities. Emma Hart Willard, one of the most prominent voices for women’s education, ran Middlebury Female Academy: an institution where geometry, philosophy, and other topics were taught. She proposed to establish her school to New York and have it publically funded, but New York refused; she built her school there anyway. Two years later she founded Troy Female Seminary. Emma Willard’s courage provided opportunities for other women’s rights activists. Although there was an influx of revolutionary women, many women were excluded. African American and other minorities were not included in the fight for women’s rights. Emma Willard had many reservations about the institution of slavery. Like the Antebellum period, there was a sense of improvement, but still a repetition of
...over the inconsistent conflict concerning the Fourteenth Amendment, Lucretia joined with Anthony and Stanton to form the “National Woman Suffrage Association”, devoted to creating a federal amendment granting women the vote. Lucretia and her husband wanted to open a Quaker institution of higher learning. It was named Swarthmore College. When the college had been chartered in 1864, she and James had insisted it be coeducational.For years she was vice president of the Universal Peace Union. In 1870 she was elected president of the Pennsylvania Peace Society, an office she held until her death. Mott grew to believe that a new spirit was at work in the world that demanded active involvement in reform
While Rimer directly interviews the students and faculty of Smith College’s Ada Comstock Scholars Program for her primary research source, this particular college is not the main focus of the essay. Women’s colleges Mount Holyoke and Bryn Mawr are also mentioned in the essay (para.27). Rimer’s interview with a historian who has studied women in higher education, speaks to women’s colleges in general. The historian goes on to explain that going back to college is transforming for older women who have been shaped by gender specific expectations (para.9). Women’s colleges o...
After graduating from Oxford University, Margaret ran for public office in the hopes of earning a seat as a conservative candidate
Oberlin College became the first college to let women in, in addition to men. In 1837, Mary Lyon founded Mount Holyoke, the nation’s first permanent women’s college. Nationalism was expressed throughout the 1800s. These people came together through different ideas. Through these different ideas, America came to be known as a stronger nation.
Some dining locations are open past 8:00 PM several nights of the week on-campus. However, many of these eating facilities are relatively unknown to a large portion of the underclassmen. Most are located under dorms and hidden from the student’s eyes. They are also incapable of holding a large amount of students simply because they don’t have the room.
Just a few centuries ago, women did not have nearly as many rights as they do now. One of the most important events in feminist history is the Seneca Falls Convention. This convention was held by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott, two of the most recognized women involved with the Women’s Suffrage Movement. These two women had thought of the idea of having this convention while they were attending an anti-slavery convention in London when they were both denied the opportunity to take the floor and speak to the other supporters. Mott and Stanton did not create any plans or pursue the convention right away. The convention took place eight years later in the July of 1848 in Seneca Falls, New York. During the convention, the Seneca Falls Declaration was created. This document was a twist off of the Declaration of Independence, but it gave rights to women as well as men. They were able to get one hundred men and women to sign this petition (Seneca Falls). This major event was the big start of the Women’s Suffrage Movement. Another topic that expresses the progress of women’s rights is education. Women were not always able to attend school. They usually stayed home and took care of the house, cooked, and cared for the children. Emma Hart Willard was the woman who founded the first school f...
A college education is something that women take for granted today, but in the 1800’s it was an extremely rare thing to see a woman in college. During the mid 1800’s, schools like Oberlin and Elmira College began to accept women. Stone’s father did a wonderful thing (by 19th century standards) in loaning her the money to pay for her college education. Stone was the first woman to get a college education in Massachusetts, graduating from Oberlin College in 1843. Her first major protest was at the time of her graduation. Stone was asked to write a commencement speech for her class. But she refused, because someone else would have had to read her speech. Women were not allowed, even at Oberlin, to give a public address.
However, women desired a higher education. Elizabeth Blackwell is a prime example of women’s fight for a medical degree, one of the first STEM environments available to women. In order to kick-start her education she wrote to all of the doctors that she knew, requesting advice and help. However, most of the doctors replied that they thought it impossible, that a woman would not be able to endure the rigors of a medical education, and that they feared the competition that women doctors would bring. Elizabeth persisted, finally making her way to Philadelphia, a city famous for its study in medicine, to stay with Dr. Elder, one of the few supporters of her education. Once here she continued writing letters and actually found many friends who agreed to support her cause, but unfortunately universities were not included in this list of friends. Elizabeth then pursued an education at the University of Geneva in New York where the Medical Faculty and students agreed to accept her. While at first the university cared about the press coverage that Elizabeth’s spot would bring, she eventually established her rightful place as a student there. Although she encountered some resentment among the wives of doctors and other people living in the small town, Elizabeth ...
The Saint Michael’s Library is not a mystery; it is like every other library in which I have even been. There are lots of books, computers and places for people to do work. There are round tables, square tables, rectangular tables, titled tables and flat tables. There are cubicles and small individual rooms known as ‘ masturbation closets’. The layout of the library is pretty standard and doesn’t need much explaining. There are three floors. The basement had one small room of books and the rest is study areas. The first floor is a mix of computer labs, books, magazines and more study areas. The third floor is mostly books and of course more places to study.
When one moves away from college, they are on their own. There is no one telling them to clean their room, or to do laundry or what they have to eat. In some colleges and universities, it is required that freshmen live on campus and eat at least two meals a day in the dining hall. This isn't necessarily for the university to monitor a student's eating habits, but rather to get the student acquainted with the campus and other people living there. Food served in college dining halls has not been known for its nutritional value.
Also more universities were going to be born in many parts of Europe such as France and Italy “from the 13th to the 15th century, a number of universities in Italy originated from migrations of students; others were established by papal or other charters” (Meyer, “Education: Europe in the Middle Ages”) but also in England, universities were going to be established. The earliest university that was built in Europe is Oxford, after Oxford, the University of Cambridge was established. These universities would provide education to both, rich and poor students, and they would also offer more degrees and majors for all the young men that were going to study. At this time, women were not permitted, only men. It is said that courses could occasionally be difficult. The courses in theology were particularly long, so students preferred the more rapid and lucrative paths of law and medicine” (Meyer, “Education: Europe in the Middle Ages”) but since, they could major in more than one subject, young men who attended university and finished their masters, would not only serve in the clergy or in the church, but they would also work for the government and privately. Many found freedom and financial success after universities were established, so this was a positive event at this time, even though it was beneficial for men only during those
Mary’s journey begins on her visit to “Oxbridge,” where she Woolf is said to give her lecture on “Women and Fiction.” Woolf then provides the reader and Mary with her thesis: a women must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction (1). At this point, Mary is sitting at the edge of a pond at “Oxbridge,” a fictional university meant to suggest a combination of the names Oxford and Cambridge, two major British Universities. Mary begins to think about the projected thesis statement, when she is interrupted by a beadle (security guard). He informs her that women are not allowed to sit in the area unless accompanied by a male student.