On this day in history: The first Cambridge degree awarded to a woman

21 October 1948

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On 21 October 1948, the first Cambridge degree was awarded to a woman. It was an honorary degree awarded to the Queen Consort, better known as the Queen Mother, who had not actually attended Cambridge.

Today, across most of the world, female education is considered a fundamental human right. But this was not always the case. It was not until the 17th Century that girls could access proper education. Even then, only wealthy families could afford to send their daughters to the private tutors and boarding schools that had been established. These schools offered a limited curriculum that focused on homemaking skills such as needlework, while some private tutors taught girls to read and write.

Gradually, in the 18th Century, education became more accessible to working-class girls with the introduction of Charity Schools. However, teaching remained basic, and it was not until the 19th Century that girls began to be taught subjects like arithmetic.

As schooling for girls improved, women began to push for access to higher education. In 1868, the University of London became the first university to allow women to sit the ‘General Examination for Women’. Nine women sat the exam, and six passed. However, they were only awarded a ‘Certificate of Proficiency’, not a full degree. Then, in 1878, it became the first university to award full degrees to women. But Cambridge lagged behind on this front.

The history of women at Cambridge begins in 1869 when Girton was established by feminist Emily Davies as the university’s first all-female college. It was the result of campaigns for women’s rights to university education. Originally based in Hitchin, on the outskirts of Cambridge, it was the first residential college for women in the UK.

Female students at Girton were allowed to attend university lectures, but only with permission and a chaperone. They could use the university’s library within limited female-only hours. They were not full members of the university and could not sit the university’s Tripos Examinations — the exams required to gain a Cambridge degree. This meant they could not be awarded degrees at the end of their studies.

Newnham was established as the second women’s college at Cambridge in 1871. It is one of the two colleges that is still all-female today, along with Murray Edwards (established in 1954).

In 1880, aware that they were not considered equal to their male counterparts at the university, a group of female students put together a 400-page petition. It called for women to be given the right to take the Tripos, receive degrees, and become full members of the university. Despite being signed by over 8000 people, the petition did not result in any immediate changes.

Cartoon by George du Maurier. Source: Punch Magazine 1887

A year later, in 1881, women were officially allowed to take the Tripos. Agnata Frances Ramsay was the first woman to achieve the highest result in the Classics Tripos in 1887, outscoring all her male colleagues. Three years later, in 1890, Philippa Fawcett achieved the highest result in the Mathematical Tripos, becoming the first female Senior Wrangler — the prestigious title awarded to the university’s top mathematician. Despite this, neither woman was awarded a degree.

In 1897, as a result of campaigning for women’s degrees, a vote on the matter was held at Senate House. Male students protested the vote by setting off home-made rockets and throwing eggs. They hung an effigy of a female student on a bike from a first-floor window overlooking Senate House. The vote rejected the notion to give women degrees by 1713 votes to 662. Following the vote, male students celebrated by dismembering, decapitating and burning the effigy and marching it towards Newnham, before forcing it through the college’s gates.

In 1921, a second vote was held. Again, male students opposed this. They marched down King’s Parade towards Senate House carrying an effigy of the ‘last male undergraduate’. They also shouted, “We don’t want women”, at women they passed in the street. This vote produced a compromise whereby women could be awarded ‘titular’ degrees, but not full qualifications. Female students were still not full members of the university. Following this result, a hostile mob tried to storm Newnham, causing damage to the college’s gates.

Effigy of woman on a bike. Source: Cambridge Digital Library

This was the beginning of real change for female students at Cambridge. In 1923, women were granted full access to the university’s library, no longer restricted to limited women-only hours.

On 6 December 1947, a vote granted women full membership of the university, meaning they could finally be awarded full degrees. It took almost a year for the first degree to be awarded to a woman, the Queen Consort, making Cambridge the last university in the UK to do so.

Cambridge’s reluctance to award women full degrees was due to the sense that it produced a specific kind of elite masculinity that was best developed in all-male environments. There was also a belief among male students that women getting degrees would reduce the significance of their own degrees.

But what impact did the decision to award women degrees have on Cambridge’s future female students?

Thirty years after the first woman was awarded a Cambridge degree, in 1978, Dr Hilary Longhurst attended Selwyn College, Cambridge, to study Medicine. And 32 years later, in 2010, her daughter, Alice Buckley, began studying History at Newnham College, Cambridge.

Selwyn began accepting female students in 1976. So, when Hilary joined, it was the first year that all three years of undergraduates were mixed, something she reflected on with pride. She noted that “when colleges went mixed, there was a lot of resistance”, but that Selwyn felt “much more equal than the rest of the university”.

Hilary Longhurst at her graduation in 1981. Source: Jill Whitehouse

Reflecting on the difference in opportunity at Cambridge between her generation and her mother’s, Alice explained: “If you have an environment where it’s 50/50 [male/female] and an opportunity is presented, the girls have almost, if not equal, as good a chance as the guys. Whereas, in mum’s day, if there’s only one woman in the room with 50 people, the fight is just that much harder.”

Alice said she would be “furious” if, like Agnata and Philippa, she achieved the highest exam result but was not awarded a degree. She expressed gratitude to the women who campaigned for the change, noting that “it’s really hard to challenge the status quo”. In contrast, Hilary believed she would have “just accepted it” because of a perception that “it wasn’t good to want to be equal to men” when she was a student.

Both women described not being aware of the inequalities female students still faced during their respective times at Cambridge. Hilary described thinking “we were all pretty equal” in 1978, but with hindsight she realises “there was still inequality”. Alice suggested there is “still work to be done in terms of getting men and women on truly equal footing”, and believes all-female colleges like Newnham have “a role to play in levelling the playing field”.

Alice Buckley at her graduation in 2013. Source: Alice Buckley

The impact of the 21 October 1948 on their lives has one obvious result — put simply, it gave them the opportunity to get degrees, something Hilary noted was “not open to my grandmother”. But Alice noted it means the work they did throughout their degrees is “recognised on paper as being equal to [their] male counterparts. And that’s a big thing — it’s not everything, but it’s a good start”.

In terms of equality at Cambridge today, Alice believes women are probably still underrepresented in STEM subjects. Hilary pointed to ongoing inequality outside of academia, such as the fact that “men still earn more”, and argued it is “absolutely the same inside the university”. Both women believe “we are lucky to be where we are now, but the job’s not done and there’s still a lot of room for improvement”.

As of 2026, women make up just over 50 percent of the student population at Cambridge, a trend seen across universities in the UK. The fight for women’s degrees at Cambridge now seems a distant memory. But, as Hilary and Alice pointed out, there is still more to be done in achieving true equality for women. But it is important to remember the significance of the 21 October 1948 in paving the way for the women who have attended Cambridge since then.