I received this book as a present when it first came out in hardback, and I can’t believe it has taken me so long to read it. It covers so many of my areas of interest – women’s history, history of education, women’s rights - that it was bound to be something I would find interesting and enjoyable, and I finally got around to picking it up after the New Year.
I know how fortunate I have been to receive the education that I have had; I have always been encouraged by parents and teachers, and later supervisors and tutors at university, to work hard and to fulfil my potential. I never felt that my gender held me back in terms of the education I have received and the opportunities that were presented to me; reading this book reminded me how hard people had to fight to allow me to have these opportunities.
Robinson’s book explores the development of women’s higher education and focuses on the personal experiences of young women who attended university from 1860s, up until 1939. Education for women was seen as a potentially dangerous activity – the arguments ranged from the physical impact on women, (women using their brains meaning that there would be less blood flow through the rest of the body, and therefore damaging to their fertility), the mental affect (women would be unable to cope with too much information and learning, resulting in women becoming nervous wrecks) and, of course, the moral danger of having women living away from home and being educated alongside men.
Women attending universities were therefore restricted in their activities; for a while, some degree subjects were out of bounds and women lived a fairly cloistered life of rules and regulations, including the need to be chaperoned to lectures. Jane Robinson argues that, although there were rebellious students, many students, and their teachers, felt that these regulations were a necessary evil, and rebellious behaviour would result in universities denying women their studies entirely.
Robinson also highlights how the huge breakthroughs in women’s university education did not mean that women were then able to progress into a career of their choice. Women were still left with limited options after graduating; whilst some women did break the mould, most became teachers, if not wives or mothers. Robinson argues therefore that these women paved the way for future generations; they fought for their right to an education, allowing their daughters to be educated and then make their own breakthroughs in the professional world. Therefore, by 1939, where Robinson ends her book, there was still numerous barriers to be broken - Cambridge, for example, did not award degrees to women until 1948! I would be interested to know if Jane Robinson is writing a follow up to this book, to chart the progress of women’s education from the 1940s onwards.
Whilst Robinson’s book was clearly thoroughly researched and very engaging, I did feel as though it could have been somewhat sharper in its organisation and analysis. It felt a bit haphazard in places, as though she had so many personal anecdotes that she wished to include that she struggled to find clear themes to draw them together or space to analyse these themes. I think I would have enjoyed the book even more if there had been more in-depth examination of certain issues; I felt in places that Robinson stopped a little short of fully engaging with her topic.
I know how fortunate I have been to receive the education that I have had; I have always been encouraged by parents and teachers, and later supervisors and tutors at university, to work hard and to fulfil my potential. I never felt that my gender held me back in terms of the education I have received and the opportunities that were presented to me; reading this book reminded me how hard people had to fight to allow me to have these opportunities.
Robinson’s book explores the development of women’s higher education and focuses on the personal experiences of young women who attended university from 1860s, up until 1939. Education for women was seen as a potentially dangerous activity – the arguments ranged from the physical impact on women, (women using their brains meaning that there would be less blood flow through the rest of the body, and therefore damaging to their fertility), the mental affect (women would be unable to cope with too much information and learning, resulting in women becoming nervous wrecks) and, of course, the moral danger of having women living away from home and being educated alongside men.
Women attending universities were therefore restricted in their activities; for a while, some degree subjects were out of bounds and women lived a fairly cloistered life of rules and regulations, including the need to be chaperoned to lectures. Jane Robinson argues that, although there were rebellious students, many students, and their teachers, felt that these regulations were a necessary evil, and rebellious behaviour would result in universities denying women their studies entirely.
Robinson also highlights how the huge breakthroughs in women’s university education did not mean that women were then able to progress into a career of their choice. Women were still left with limited options after graduating; whilst some women did break the mould, most became teachers, if not wives or mothers. Robinson argues therefore that these women paved the way for future generations; they fought for their right to an education, allowing their daughters to be educated and then make their own breakthroughs in the professional world. Therefore, by 1939, where Robinson ends her book, there was still numerous barriers to be broken - Cambridge, for example, did not award degrees to women until 1948! I would be interested to know if Jane Robinson is writing a follow up to this book, to chart the progress of women’s education from the 1940s onwards.
Whilst Robinson’s book was clearly thoroughly researched and very engaging, I did feel as though it could have been somewhat sharper in its organisation and analysis. It felt a bit haphazard in places, as though she had so many personal anecdotes that she wished to include that she struggled to find clear themes to draw them together or space to analyse these themes. I think I would have enjoyed the book even more if there had been more in-depth examination of certain issues; I felt in places that Robinson stopped a little short of fully engaging with her topic.
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