A vote on women getting degrees turns into a riot at Cambridge University (1897)In a rapidly changing educational landscape, Cambridge’s refusal to grant women equality stood out. The University of London was the first to admit women to degrees in 1878, and thereafter the rapid creation of new universities meant that by 1914 there were many institutions offering women degrees. Oxford fell in line in 1920, leaving Cambridge isolated until it gave women full membership of the university in 1948.In 1897 and 1921 requests for equality were put to a vote and were rejected. Why did Cambridge resist the rising tide for so long? Victorian ideas about female intellectual or physical inferiority were soon dispelled. The success of Agnata Ramsay in the Classical Tripos in 1887 and Philippa Fawcett achieving the position of Wrangler in 1890 dispelled myths about women’s capability for academic success. More important was a sense that, unlike other universities, Cambridge existed to produce certain kinds of elite masculinity that were best cultivated in exclusively male environments. Also important was the fear that granting women degrees would give them a say in running the university.In 1897 the proposal was carefully worded to grant women formal recognition of their degrees, but no share in university government. Despite this on 21 May 1897 Cambridge University rejected the notion by 1713 votes to 662 to grant full degrees to women.In this image the crowds of almost exclusively men stretch down King’s Parade.https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/PH-UA-PHOT-00174-00002/1+φωτογραφίες: Rockets attached to sticks and singed fragments of confetti have been found in a box at Cambridge University Library(Confetti and fireworks, collected at an 1897 street protest opposing women's rights to get university degrees)An effigy of a woman on a bike was mutilated during the 1897 Cambridge protest(Τhey suspended an effigy of a woman riding a bicycle - the stereotypical female Cambridge student - from a window while waving banners with slogans such as "No Gowns for Girtonites", Girton being an all-women college. On hearing that the resolution had fallen, students then maimed and decapitated the effigy before pushing it through the gates of all-women college Newnham.)A sea of male undergraduates protesting a vote to allow women to gain degrees at Cambridge in 1897https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-45096690+Poster encouraging members of the university to vote against the awarding of degrees to women at Cambridge"no gowms for the girtonites!"https://apollo.imgix.net/content/uploads/2019/10/PR-UA-1897-POSTER-00001-000-00001-HR-e1571328015932.jpg?auto=compress,format&w=620&h=778....Ενεργές διαμαρτυρίες και πράξεις (σχεδόν αποκλειστικά) μικρόνοων ανδρών ... εναντίον της αναγνώρισης των διπλωμάτων γυναικών απ' το Cambdridge και συνεπώς κατά της εκπαίδευσης επί ίσοις όροις.
