What Cambridge women did for us

With women outperforming men in a number of spheres, it’s easy to forget that equality (though still imperfect) was a hard-won process – and that many of the major social and political struggles that gradually put women on the same footing as men took place only recently.

The women’s suffrage movement began in 1872 but women finally won the right to vote on the same terms as men only in 1928. Girton College was established in 1869 especially to give women a chance to study at university but they had to ask permission to attend lectures and were not allowed to take exams. It was not until 1947 that female students became full members of the university.

Changes in legislation on a national level reflected a groundswell of opinion that challenged attitudes locally.  In Cambridge, as elsewhere in the country, the struggles for parity between the sexes was played out at every strata of society – from the comfortable drawing rooms of well-heeled reformers to the dingy back kitchens where many working class women laboured largely unseen and for precious little pay.

A series of events staged by Cambridge Folk Museum starting on 9 May and continuing to the end of July will celebrate the part played by women in Cambridge in bringing about equal rights for women in the workplace and beyond. In particular Cambridge Women and Work marks the centenary of the Cambridge Branch of the National Union of Women Workers - an organisation that was concerned with a number of issues including employment, housing and social problems as well as suffrage. 

As Tasmin Wimhurst, Education Officer at the Folk Museum, explained: “The Cambridge branch of the NUWW brought together more than 400 Cambridge women and 39 voluntary organisations.  It was the result of 25 years work by a group of ‘ladies’ dedicated to improving social provision for the poor in a world with few safety nets and meagre public welfare support. Many of these ‘ladies’ were well educated, upper middle class and married to university dons.”

The programme of talks and discussions draws on expertise from the institutions at the heart of Cambridge – and looks at the roles played by Cambridge women in the past.  The names of some of these women are incorporated into the geography of the city. Rackham Road takes its name from the political activist Clara Rackham. Ida Darwin Hospital carries the name of its founder, a social reformer who was Charles Darwin’s daughter-in-law. Keynes Road is named after Florence Ada, mother of John Maynard and a respected member of Cambridge civic life as the first local female councillor in 1914 and later mayor.

A range of speakers from across the University of Cambridge will contribute talks to the programme which aims to reveal the inside story of town and gown in a time of social tensions and radical transition that was sometimes highly public – as in the 1897 protests in Cambridge against women being admitted to the university - but for the most part took place in the private settings of hearth and home where men and women began to re-negotiate their relationships.

Among contributors to the series of talks are social historian Dr Lucy Delap, fellow of St Catharine’s College and acclaimed expert in the history of domestic service in the 20^th century. Delap, who is known for her book Knowing Their Place: Domestic Service in Twentieth-Century Britain, will explore the relationships between those who serve and those who are served, and the subtle shifts that have taken place over the years.

"The Cambridge NUWW was typical of many voluntary sector women’s organisations in viewing domestic service as a good job for poor women.  The women who ran it rarely reflected on the structural inequalities that servants faced, or indeed on the ways in which buying in domestic labour was necessary to their own careers as philanthropic women.  My talk will consider what it was to be a servant, and who had rights to leisure and liberty in the NUWW world-view," said Delap.

The dark side of Cambridge’s past will be explored in a talk by Susan Woodall from the Open University and Dr Phil Howell, Senior Lecturer in the University’s Department of Geography and a Fellow of Emmanuel College. Their presentation Sex, Sin and Sympathy will look at the history of prostitution at a time when the University ‘tolerated’ prostitutes yet had the powers to detain and inspect women suspected of being streetwalkers.  In the 19^th century attitudes to fallen women began to change with members of the University being active in carrying out reforms.

Their talk will discuss the 19th-century University's institutionalised misogyny and its double standards; the 'gown' tolerated a certain degree of sexual license on the part of male undergraduates, but policed, inspected and incarcerated women of the 'town'. It will also consider the closely connected role of middle-class women, many of them connected to the University, in 'rescue' and rehabilitation work for prostitutes and 'wayward girls'.

Women’s work in Cambridge during the early years of the 20th century was limited, and largely determined, by education and social class. In evaluating the past, we tend to focus on so-called turning points. Dr Deborah Thom, who teaches social and gender history at Robinson College, Cambridge, will look at the opening up of new opportunities before and after the First World War and examine the role of women’s organisations.

Dr Thom is known for her book Nice Girls and Rude Girls which explores the myth and reality of women’s experiences of the 1914-18 war when many women went into spheres such as industry where they excelled and proved their capabilities.

While being a master of a Cambridge college has long been a high profile role, what is it like being the wife of a master today?  In what promises to be an insightful discussion hosted by the Folk Museum’s Tamsin Wimhurst, Sibella Laing from Corpus Christi College, Susan Bowring from Selwyn College and Caro Wilson from Emmanuel College will talk about their lives, and how they changed when their husbands were appointed as heads of houses.

The programme of events Cambridge Women and Work takes place from May to July. For more details of the programme and details of how to book go to http://www.folkmuseum.org.uk/page.php?id=207