Women in the history of Cambridge

Illustrator – Dilara Arin

The Cyclist- In 1897, a proposal was put before Cambridge University’s Senate to grant full degrees to female graduates. Male students responded in outrage. on the day of the debate, an effigy of a woman on a bicycle was suspended out of the window of a building opposite the Senate House. Banners reading ‘No gowns for Girtonites’ and ‘Varsity for Men’ flew alongside it.

The 1897 proposal did not pass and upon hearing this result, the triumphant mob tore down the effigy. They then savagely attacked the mannequin, decapitating and tearing it to pieces in a frenzy. What remained of the woman on a bicycle was stuffed through Newnham Collage Gates.

Women studying at Cambridge University were not to receive the titles of full degrees until 1921 and even then without associated privileges.

A poetry booklet about Women in the history of Cambridge is being republished and all its illustrations renewed.