The Renaissance of Girls' Education in England: A Record of Fifty Years' ProgressZimmern, Alice
History
The Renaissance of Girls' Education in England: A Record of Fifty Years' Progress
Zimmern, Alice
Women -- Education -- Great Britain
Anomalous as is their position, the students of Girton and Newnham have
many and great advantages. For a comparatively low fee they receive all
the advantages of a University education; they enjoy the manifold
privileges that belong to residence in Cambridge, they may attend nearly
all professorial and very many college lectures, their own colleges also
provide excellent lecturing and coaching; and they may enter for any of
the Tripos Examinations, and for those that lead to the degrees of Doc.
and Bac. Mus. They have the advantage of life in beautiful buildings,
with plentiful opportunities for recreation, exercise, and social
intercourse, while the very fact of belonging to Girton or Newnham
confers a certain prestige which is an advantage professionally and
socially. However much we may desire the degree, and regret its
indefinite postponement, it may yet safely be said that nowhere else can
women obtain such advantages as at Cambridge. No anxiety need be felt
about the future of the colleges. The success of their students, the
influence their ‘graduates’ have had on the teaching profession, and the
good work done by them in other fields, have amply justified the new
departure. If success has come too quickly, public opinion may lag
behind a few years longer. Meantime the work goes on.
At this period of their history it is no longer necessary to describe
the colleges. Everybody who knows Cambridge is familiar with them. Both
have increased greatly since their first beginnings. Girton has added
fresh wings and a tower; changed its entrance and built a library which
is full to overflowing. The trees have grown up around it and offer
pleasant shade to summer tea-parties and afternoon loungers, the
‘woodland walk’ that encircles the grounds is gay at almost all seasons
with pretty blossoms and flowering shrubs. Newnham has enlarged its
first (Old) hall and built two new ones, called by names that will ever
be held in honour, Clough and Sidgwick Halls. One library has been
outgrown, and another—a generous gift—has been lately added; a road has
been diverted allowing an addition to the grounds, and a fresh approach
made under a tower gateway with beautiful iron gates presented by old
students in memory of their first Principal. Girton has once more
outgrown its accommodation, and is appealing for building funds. The
colleges are growing both outwardly and in their aims. Not the least
hopeful feature is the number of ‘graduate’ students who continue their
studies in Cambridge or at one of the foreign universities, or devote to
research or social problems that leisure and freedom from responsibility
which women possess in a greater share than men. The founders have been
abundantly justified in their resolve to establish no mere
training-school for governesses, but to offer a wide and liberal
education to all.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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