40 Years On...

Since the first intake of 36 women as students in 1979, over three thousand women have matriculated at Caius. In 2019, the fortieth anniversary of women coming to Caius, around half of our incoming cohort will be women, from all backgrounds and disciplines. In the year following the installation of our first female Master, Dr Pippa Rogerson (1986), we will be exploring and celebrating the mark that women have made on our 671-year-old College.

by Agnetta Lazarus, Head of Communications

Caius joined the wider movement towards co-educational delivery slowly, playing a cautious ‘waiting game’, as Life Fellow Dr Michael Wood (1959) puts it, whilst observing how the ‘early adopter’ Colleges were faring. Following its first debate in 1969, and ‘a restrained and excellently argued paper from our undergraduates’, the Governing Body revisited the topic of the admission of women in 1978, and the change of statute was passed by a majority of well over the two-thirds needed.

Michael was present at the meeting and recalls ‘an overwhelming sense of welcome for the change’. Opinion amongst the Fellowship, he notes, had progressively shifted as experience elsewhere in Cambridge had come to show ‘the real advantages of a mixed entry’. Within a year, the first women at Caius arrived. These pioneers had an ambivalent experience: ‘they were both invisible and too visible’ according to Pippa, then a student at Newnham, an all-female College. ‘They were too few in number to have weight of authority or to have a good support network – although some Colleges seem to have bent over backwards to accommodate women’s perceived needs.’ She adds, ‘However, their rarity made individuals too conspicuous’.

Mary Lowth (née Bagnall) (1979) was one of the first Caius women. She recalls the first week as a ‘whirl of meeting people, sorting out timetables, finding the sports ground, finding the anatomy theatre and coffee, lots of coffee.’ It sounds much like the experience of Freshers today, except she remembers something else: ‘all over the courts and staircases, like magic dust, hung a sense of vague astonishment.’ She says, ‘Everyone knew that Caius had debated admitting women over several years. They had voted against it. They had discussed it again. Time had passed. Then they had voted for it. Yet now that we were here, it was a bit of a surprise.’

However, it was a good time to arrive: ‘although the matriculation photograph reveals an extraordinarily young-looking group, some (me) with hairstyles we’d prefer to forget, we were daughters of the ‘60s and had been taught that women’s liberation had happened, the battle was won and we could just get on with it and be whatever we wanted to be. We believed it.’

Wandering around the courts today, it soon becomes apparent that women are very much a part of the fabric of the present-day College. ‘In 2018, for the first time, we received more female applicants than male applicants,’ states Dr Sarah Houghton-Walker (2007), Admissions Tutor for Arts and Humanities.

On an extra-curricular level, the student run Joyce Frankland Society, established in 2016, provides an inclusive and diverse space for the discussion of feminist and gender issues. Named in honour of one of the great female philanthropists of the sixteenth century, who founded a number of fellowships and scholarships at Caius, the society organised a series of performances and talks in March 2019, to commemorate International Women’s Day and ‘equality in all its forms’, as Nadia Razali (2016), the society’s then President, puts it. Speakers included TV writer Sally Abbott and Caius Fellow and Director of Studies in Economics Dr Victoria Bateman (1998). Proceeds raised from the evening were donated to support local women’s charities.

If the effervescence of the student body is perhaps the most immediate evidence of the integral role women play in life at Caius, their contribution also makes itself felt in a number of other areas. From the moment you step through the College gates, friendly Porters, four of whom are female, greet you. As you look around our beautiful Courts, the names of women are painted on almost every staircase.

Michelle Whitehead, Gonville & Caius College Porter

The College’s day-to-day operations are kept on track thanks to numerous women as well as men, from housekeeping staff, chefs and librarians to tutors, the College nurse and countless other members of staff working tirelessly behind the scenes. Pushing open the doors of our Chapel, you can hear the beautiful sounds of our world-renowned choir, which has been mixed for many years. Chapel services are led by our College Dean, The Revd Cally Hammond (2005).

Women and non-binary individuals are also represented within our Fellowship – a diverse group of professional researchers and teachers. All across Cambridge, women represent the College in a wide variety of sports and societies, and beyond graduation, Caius women have excelled in areas as diverse as business, media, science, economics, history, maths, medicine and the law.

The changing face of academia: Eva Strasburger, née de Sousa Turner (1982) in front of the portrait by Sir Oswald Birley of Lt. Col. Frederick ‘Chubby’ Stratton (1901), Senior Tutor 1919-1927, Professor of Astrophysics 1928-1947

An alumna of the all-female Murray Edwards College, formerly New Hall, Dr Rebecca Sugden (2018) joined Caius last October as a Research Fellow in French. ‘There’s a sense in which – for a newcomer like myself – it’s happily difficult to imagine Caius as a space without women,’ she remarks. ‘My own arrival coincided with Dr Pippa Rogerson’s installation as Master, and it was hugely heartening to see Caius participating fully in the wider shift across Cambridge Colleges to more female Heads of House.’

‘Perhaps just as encouraging for me, though,’ Rebecca continues, ‘was to note the efforts College is making in this anniversary year to acknowledge the work of all those other women who are so often overlooked, but who do and have done so much to keep Caius running smoothly over the years – not just academics, but chefs, bedders, porters, librarians, accountants, computer officers, to give just a few examples.’

Rebecca stresses that the progress made over the last 40 years should not be taken for granted. ‘It’s wonderful that so much has been accomplished in a relatively short period of time, but this is an issue that requires ongoing work. We’re incredibly fortunate to have such an engaged and articulate student body, and maintaining a dialogue with them, as well as Caians around the world, will be vital to ensuring that Caius remains a welcoming and supportive place for students, staff and Fellows of all genders.’

This anniversary is as much an opportunity to look ahead as it is about acknowledging the past. As Pippa emphasises: ‘We must not be complacent. There is a long way still to go.’ Over the next year, we will be commemorating this milestone and celebrating co-education and diversity with a series of events, exhibitions, stories and podcasts for Caians past and present.

In September, some of the earliest Caius women will return to College for a Garden Party, giving them an opportunity to reflect on their time as students, reconnect with other pioneers, and celebrate the progress the College has made over the years. In December, the Library and Archives will open its doors to College members for an open afternoon that explores women’s connections to Caius. The College will also join in the University’s celebrations of 150 years of women at Cambridge, marked with a line-up of exhibitions, events and displays called The Rising Tide, coordinated by the University Library. We warmly encourage Caians to get involved with the celebrations, to share their memories and historic items with our Archives, and to contribute their vision for the future of the College.

Debbie Silver (1979) and Bridget Taxy, née Spreckley (1979) in the first play performed by women at Caius, c. November 1979: L’Avare by Molière, performed in French in the Bateman Room