Edinburgh Association for the University Education of Women
Encyclopedia
The Edinburgh Association for the University Education of Women (EAUEW), originally known as the Edinburgh Ladies' Educational Association (ELEA), campaigned for higher education for women from 1867 until 1892 when Scottish
universities started to admit female students. For nearly a quarter of a century it arranged its own classes for women with lecturers from Edinburgh University, and it was connected with a wider campaign across the United Kingdom
to open universities to women students.
, with Sarah Mair
and others, in 1867 just before Sophia Jex-Blake
started pressing Edinburgh University to admit medical students. Jex-Blake's campaign
, covered by the press in both London and Scotland, made Edinburgh a visible part of a nationwide movement demanding higher education opportunities for women. Crudelius wished to keep the ELEA separate from the controversy raging over the women aspiring to become doctors, and she built up support amongst male academics, with strong encouragement from David Masson
, Professor of Rhetoric and English Literature, who offered the first university-level lectures to Edinburgh women in 1868. These were well-attended and within the next five years the association had arranged for several more subjects to be offered, including science subjects.
In August 1867 the University of London
had been given powers to hold special examinations for women. In 1868 the university drew up plans to grant them certificates, although it would be another ten years before women could graduate with full degrees.
One of David Masson's earliest ELEA lectures in 1868 responded to this news:
Is it to be borne that our Scottish Universities are to be Universities for only the men of the land, while other Universities are Universities for the men and women of the land? Is it to be borne that those of Scotland's daughters, be they few or be they many at present, who desire not to be behind any of their British sisters in culture, shall have to look for encouragement and aid to the Universities in England ... ?
Although Crudelius was often successful in avoiding confrontations of the kind which erupted around the women medical students, she did not entirely avoid tensions between the university and the association. These subsided however, and in 1874 a university certificate was offered in arts subjects and the association's classes were listed in the university calendar from 1877. Though support for women's educational rights was growing, the universities were still officially closed to female students. Further campaigning and public discussion led to the Universities (Scotland) Act 1889, after which universities started to make arrangements for women to study and graduate on the same terms as men. The first female undergraduates at Edinburgh were admitted in 1892 and eight graduated in 1893, all of them having previously studied in EAUEW classes. All classes were mixed except those for medical students. By 1914 a thousand women had degrees from Edinburgh University.
and Margaret Houldsworth
were leading figures in raising funds for the Masson Hall (named to honour Professor Masson's support) which opened in 1897 with accommodation and a library, overseen by the warden, Frances Simson, one of those first eight women graduates. Hopes that it might become a women's college similar to Girton College, Cambridge
were not realised, but for many years the Hall was a community of women within the wider university. Masson Hall was relocated in the 1960s when the University redeveloped its site in George Square, and the EAUEW was wound up in the 1970s.
The equivalent organisation in Glasgow
was the Glasgow Association for the Higher Education of Women which brought about the establishment of Queen Margaret College. In 1892 the college started to amalgamate with Glasgow University but kept its own identity for some time.
Aberdeen University also opened its doors to women in 1892 with the first 20 female students matriculating
in 1894.
At the University of St Andrews, women could be undergraduates from 1892, and board and residence was available for them from 1896. During the 1880s, St. Andrews had offered women a special qualification, like an external degree
, called LLA: Lady Literate in Arts
.
Lecturers for the EAUEW included:
The founder members were:
Sarah Mair was present at the meeting when the Association was founded, but the Association did not consider her a founder member, presumably because she was unmarried and rather young.
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
universities started to admit female students. For nearly a quarter of a century it arranged its own classes for women with lecturers from Edinburgh University, and it was connected with a wider campaign across the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
to open universities to women students.
1867 - 1892
The ELEA was founded by Mary CrudeliusMary Crudelius
Mary Crudelius was a British campaigner for women's education who lived in Leith, Edinburgh in the 1860s and 1870s, and was a supporter of women's suffrage....
, with Sarah Mair
Sarah Mair
Dame Sarah Elizabeth Siddons Mair, DBE was a Scottish campaigner for women's education and women's suffrage, active in the Edinburgh Association for the University Education of Women and the Ladies' Edinburgh Debating Society, which she founded before she was 20.-Life:Born into a well-to-do family...
and others, in 1867 just before Sophia Jex-Blake
Sophia Jex-Blake
Sophia Louisa Jex-Blake was an English physician, teacher and feminist. She was one of the first female doctors in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, a leading campaigner for medical education for women and was involved in founding two medical schools for women, in London and in...
started pressing Edinburgh University to admit medical students. Jex-Blake's campaign
Edinburgh Seven
The Edinburgh Seven were the first group of women medical students at a university in the United Kingdom. They fought to study medicine at Edinburgh University, in Scotland, and to be allowed to graduate. In 1869 they were allowed to attend specially-arranged classes, but in 1873 they lost a legal...
, covered by the press in both London and Scotland, made Edinburgh a visible part of a nationwide movement demanding higher education opportunities for women. Crudelius wished to keep the ELEA separate from the controversy raging over the women aspiring to become doctors, and she built up support amongst male academics, with strong encouragement from David Masson
David Masson
David Masson , was a Scottish writer.He was born in Aberdeen, and educated at Aberdeen Grammar School and at Marischal College, University of Aberdeen. Intending to enter the Church, he proceeded to Edinburgh University, where he studied theology under Dr Thomas Chalmers, with whom he remained...
, Professor of Rhetoric and English Literature, who offered the first university-level lectures to Edinburgh women in 1868. These were well-attended and within the next five years the association had arranged for several more subjects to be offered, including science subjects.
In August 1867 the University of London
University of London
-20th century:Shortly after 6 Burlington Gardens was vacated, the University went through a period of rapid expansion. Bedford College, Royal Holloway and the London School of Economics all joined in 1900, Regent's Park College, which had affiliated in 1841 became an official divinity school of the...
had been given powers to hold special examinations for women. In 1868 the university drew up plans to grant them certificates, although it would be another ten years before women could graduate with full degrees.
One of David Masson's earliest ELEA lectures in 1868 responded to this news:
Is it to be borne that our Scottish Universities are to be Universities for only the men of the land, while other Universities are Universities for the men and women of the land? Is it to be borne that those of Scotland's daughters, be they few or be they many at present, who desire not to be behind any of their British sisters in culture, shall have to look for encouragement and aid to the Universities in England ... ?
Although Crudelius was often successful in avoiding confrontations of the kind which erupted around the women medical students, she did not entirely avoid tensions between the university and the association. These subsided however, and in 1874 a university certificate was offered in arts subjects and the association's classes were listed in the university calendar from 1877. Though support for women's educational rights was growing, the universities were still officially closed to female students. Further campaigning and public discussion led to the Universities (Scotland) Act 1889, after which universities started to make arrangements for women to study and graduate on the same terms as men. The first female undergraduates at Edinburgh were admitted in 1892 and eight graduated in 1893, all of them having previously studied in EAUEW classes. All classes were mixed except those for medical students. By 1914 a thousand women had degrees from Edinburgh University.
From 1892
Once women were admitted as students, the EAUEW turned its attention to providing facilities for them. Louisa StevensonLouisa Stevenson
Louisa Stevenson was a Scottish campaigner for women's university education, women's suffrage and effective, well-organised nursing.-Family:...
and Margaret Houldsworth
Margaret Houldsworth
Margaret Marshall Houldsworth was a British campaigner for women's education and a philanthropist.Her family were cotton manufacturers in Manchester who also had business interests, including mining and iron interests, in Glasgow and Lanarkshire...
were leading figures in raising funds for the Masson Hall (named to honour Professor Masson's support) which opened in 1897 with accommodation and a library, overseen by the warden, Frances Simson, one of those first eight women graduates. Hopes that it might become a women's college similar to Girton College, Cambridge
Girton College, Cambridge
Girton College is one of the 31 constituent colleges of the University of Cambridge. It was England's first residential women's college, established in 1869 by Emily Davies and Barbara Bodichon. The full college status was only received in 1948 and marked the official admittance of women to the...
were not realised, but for many years the Hall was a community of women within the wider university. Masson Hall was relocated in the 1960s when the University redeveloped its site in George Square, and the EAUEW was wound up in the 1970s.
The equivalent organisation in Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
was the Glasgow Association for the Higher Education of Women which brought about the establishment of Queen Margaret College. In 1892 the college started to amalgamate with Glasgow University but kept its own identity for some time.
Aberdeen University also opened its doors to women in 1892 with the first 20 female students matriculating
Matriculation
Matriculation, in the broadest sense, means to be registered or added to a list, from the Latin matricula – little list. In Scottish heraldry, for instance, a matriculation is a registration of armorial bearings...
in 1894.
At the University of St Andrews, women could be undergraduates from 1892, and board and residence was available for them from 1896. During the 1880s, St. Andrews had offered women a special qualification, like an external degree
External degree
An external degree is a degree offered by a university to students who have not been required to be physically present within the geographic territory of the institution. These undergraduates may be called external students and may study at classes unconnected with the university, or independently,...
, called LLA: Lady Literate in Arts
Lady Literate in Arts
A Lady Literate in Arts or LLA qualification was offered by the University of St Andrews for more than a decade before women were allowed to graduate in the same way as men, and it became popular as a kind of external degree for women who had studied through correspondence, or by attendance at...
.
EAUEW members and supporters
Influential members of the EAUEW included:- Mary CrudeliusMary CrudeliusMary Crudelius was a British campaigner for women's education who lived in Leith, Edinburgh in the 1860s and 1870s, and was a supporter of women's suffrage....
- Margaret HouldsworthMargaret HouldsworthMargaret Marshall Houldsworth was a British campaigner for women's education and a philanthropist.Her family were cotton manufacturers in Manchester who also had business interests, including mining and iron interests, in Glasgow and Lanarkshire...
- Sarah MairSarah MairDame Sarah Elizabeth Siddons Mair, DBE was a Scottish campaigner for women's education and women's suffrage, active in the Edinburgh Association for the University Education of Women and the Ladies' Edinburgh Debating Society, which she founded before she was 20.-Life:Born into a well-to-do family...
- Marion Newbigin
- Frances Simson
- Flora StevensonFlora StevensonFlora Clift Stevenson was a Scottish social reformer with a special interest in education for poor or neglected children, and in education for girls. She was one of the first women in the United Kingdom to be elected to a school board...
- Louisa StevensonLouisa StevensonLouisa Stevenson was a Scottish campaigner for women's university education, women's suffrage and effective, well-organised nursing.-Family:...
- Mary Walker
- Christian Guthrie Wright
Lecturers for the EAUEW included:
- David MassonDavid MassonDavid Masson , was a Scottish writer.He was born in Aberdeen, and educated at Aberdeen Grammar School and at Marischal College, University of Aberdeen. Intending to enter the Church, he proceeded to Edinburgh University, where he studied theology under Dr Thomas Chalmers, with whom he remained...
, English Literature - Gerard Baldwin Brown, Fine Art
- Henry CalderwoodHenry CalderwoodHenry Calderwood , Scottish philosopher and divine, was born at Peebles.He was educated at the Royal High School, and later at the University of Edinburgh. He studied for the ministry of the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland, and in 1856 was ordained pastor of the Greyfriars church, Glasgow...
, Moral Philosophy - Alexander Campbell FraserAlexander Campbell FraserAlexander Campbell Fraser was a Scottish philosopher.Born at Ardchattan, Argyll, the son of the parish minister, he was educated at the universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh, where, from 1846 to 1856, he was professor of Logic at New College...
, Logic - Peter Guthrie TaitPeter Guthrie TaitPeter Guthrie Tait FRSE was a Scottish mathematical physicist, best known for the seminal energy physics textbook Treatise on Natural Philosophy, which he co-wrote with Kelvin, and his early investigations into knot theory, which contributed to the eventual formation of topology as a mathematical...
, Physics
The founder members were:
- Mary CrudeliusMary CrudeliusMary Crudelius was a British campaigner for women's education who lived in Leith, Edinburgh in the 1860s and 1870s, and was a supporter of women's suffrage....
- Harriot Mair, mother of Sarah MairSarah MairDame Sarah Elizabeth Siddons Mair, DBE was a Scottish campaigner for women's education and women's suffrage, active in the Edinburgh Association for the University Education of Women and the Ladies' Edinburgh Debating Society, which she founded before she was 20.-Life:Born into a well-to-do family...
- Helen Evans (Helen De Lacy Evans Russel, one of the Edinburgh SevenEdinburgh SevenThe Edinburgh Seven were the first group of women medical students at a university in the United Kingdom. They fought to study medicine at Edinburgh University, in Scotland, and to be allowed to graduate. In 1869 they were allowed to attend specially-arranged classes, but in 1873 they lost a legal...
, who married Alexander Russel, editor of The ScotsmanThe ScotsmanThe Scotsman is a British newspaper, published in Edinburgh.As of August 2011 it had an audited circulation of 38,423, down from about 100,000 in the 1980s....
in 1871) - Madeline Daniell (1832–1906)
- Mrs Ranken
- Mrs Lindsay
Sarah Mair was present at the meeting when the Association was founded, but the Association did not consider her a founder member, presumably because she was unmarried and rather young.
Sources and notes
- Genesis Women's History Project
- Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
- Glasgow Association for the Higher Education of Women
- History of the University of Aberdeen
- Gerard Baldwin Brown
- Archives of The Scotsman