Follow
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girton_College,_Cambridge
Girton College is one of the 31 constituent colleges of the University of Cambridge. It was one of England's first residential colleges for women, established in 1869 by Emily Davies, Barbara Bodichon and Lady Stanley of Alderley. (Whitelands College, now part of the University of Roehampton, was established as a college of higher education for women earlier, in 1841.) The full college status was only received in 1948 and marked the official admittance of women to the university. In 1976, it was Cambridge's first women's college to become coeducational.
The main college site, situated on the outskirts of the village of Girton about 2.5 miles (4 km) northwest of the university town, comprises 33 acres (13.4 ha) of land. Held in typical Victorian red brick design, most was built by architect Alfred Waterhouse between 1872 and 1887. It provides extensive sports facilities, an indoor swimming pool, an award-winning library and a chapel with two organs. There is an accommodation annexe, known as Wolfson Court, situated in Cambridge's western suburbs, close to the Centre for Mathematical Sciences. This annexe was opened in 1961 and provides housing for graduates, and for second year undergraduates and above.
In 2010, the college's net assets were valued at £104.5 million, including £49 million of endowment, and in 2009-10 it admitted 674 full-time undergraduates and postgraduates. The college's formal governance is assured by a Mistress, Susan J. Smith, who has held the position since 2009.
The college has a tradition of fostering student equality, kept alive with a balanced male-to-female ratio, a ballot system for room distribution and several equal-access admittance schemes. It also has a reputation of encouraging talent in music. Several art collections are held on the main site, including People's Portraits, the millennial exhibition of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters, and an Egyptian collection containing the world's most reproduced portrait mummy.
Among Girton college's notable alumni are the queen Margrethe II of Denmark, The Huffington Post co-founder Arianna Huffington, the comedian/author Sandi Toksvig, the comedian/broadcaster/GP Phil Hammond and the anthropologist Marilyn Strathern, also Mistress from 1998 to 2009.
1869 to 1976: Pioneering for women's education[edit] The early feminist movement began to argue for the improvement of women's education in the 1860s: Emily Davies and Barbara Bodichon met through their activism at the Society for the Employment of Women and the Englishwoman's Review.[2] They shared the aim of securing women's admission to university.[3] In particular, they wanted to determine whether girls could be admitted at Oxford or Cambridge to sit the Senior and Junior Local Examinations.[4] Davies and Bodichon set up a committee to that effect in 1862. In 1865, with the help of Henry Tomkinson, Trinity College alumnus and owner of an insurance company with good contacts within the University,[5] 91 female students entered the Cambridge Local Examination.[6] This first concession to women's educational rights met relatively little resistance, as admission to the examination did not imply residence of women at the university site.[7]
At that time, students had the option of doing a Pass degree, which consisted of 'a disorderly collection of fragmented learning',[8] or an Honours degree, which at that time meant the Mathematics Tripos, classics, natural or moral sciences. An Honours degree was considered more challenging than the Pass degree. In 1869, Henry Sidgwick helped institute the Examinations for Women, which was designed to be of intermediate difficulty.[9] This idea was heavily opposed by Emily Davies, as she demanded admittance to the Tripos examinations.[10]
Girton college was established on 16 October 1869 under the name of College for Women at Benslow House in Hitchin, which was considered to be a convenient distance from Cambridge and London.[11] It was thought to be less 'risky' and less controversial to locate the college away from Cambridge in the beginning.[12] In July and October 1869, entrance examinations were held in London, to which 21 candidates came; 16 passed.[13] The first term started on 16 October 1869, when five students began their studies.[14] The first three students to unofficially sit the Tripos exams in Lent term 1873, Rachel Cook and Louisa Lumsden, who both took the Classical Tripos, as well as Sarah Woodhead, who took the Mathematical Tripos, were known as "The Pioneers".[15][16]
Through fundraising, £7,000 were collected, which allowed for the purchase of land either at Hitchin or near Cambridge in 1871.[17] By 1872, sixteen acres of land at the present site were acquired near the village of Girton.[17][18] The college was then renamed Girton College, and opened at the new location in October 1873.[17] The buildings had cost £12,000,[19] and consisted of a single block which comprised the east half of Old Wing.[20] At the time, thirteen students were admitted.[21]
In 1876, Old Wing was completed, and Taylor's Knob, the college laboratory and half of Hospital Wing built. In 1884, Hospital Wing was completed, and Orchard Wing, Stanley Library and the Old Kitchens added. At that time, Girton had 80 students. By 1902, Tower Wing, Chapel Wing and Woodlands Wing as well as the Chapel and the Hall were finished, which allowed the college to accommodate 180 students.[20]
In 1921, a committee was appointed to draft a charter for the college. By summer 1923 the committee had completed the task, and on 21 August 1924 the King granted the charter to "the Mistress and Governors of Girton College" as a Body Corporate.[22] Girton was not officially a college yet, nor were its members part of the University. Girton and Newnham were classed as "recognised institutions for the higher education for women", not colleges of the university. On 27 April 1948, women were admitted to full membership of the University of Cambridge, and Girton College received the status of a college of the university.
1976 to present: Pioneering for sexual equality[edit] Social and cultural changes in the post-war period led to an increasing number of British universities to become co-educational. In Cambridge, Churchill college, King's college and Clare college were the first men's colleges to admit women in 1972.[23] Girton had already amended its statutes in 1971 in such a way as to allow the admission of men should the Governing Body vote in favour at an unspecified date in the future.[24] The decision to become mixed came in November 1976, when the Governing Body voted to act upon the statute, which made Girton the first women's college to admit men.[25] In January 1977, the first two male Fellows, Frank Wilkinson and John Marks, arrived, followed by male graduate students in 1978, and, finally, undergraduates in October 1979.[26] One reason for the change was that the first mixed colleges in Cambridge immediately shot to the top of the Tripos league tables, as they seemed to attract bright students, who preferred to stay in co-educational colleges.[27]
Girton became co-residential as well, which meant that male and female students shared the same facilities. Only one all-female corridor in which rooms were reserved exclusively for women remained. Upon the arrival of male undergraduates, JCR and MCR social facilities had to be enlarged. The college bar was opened in 1979 as well as rugby, cricket and soccer pitches provided from 1982 onwards.