Newnham College, Cambridge

Newnham College is a women's college in the University of Cambridge. It was founded in 1871 by Henry Sidgwick and was the second Cambridge college to admit women, the first being Girton.

1 Women in the university
2 History
3 Future
4 Alumnae
5 Institutions based on Newnham
6 See also

The idea of women attending the University was greeted with derision when first seriously raised in the 19th century, but matters progressed nonetheless; in 1868 Cambridge's Local Examinations Board (governing non-university examinations) allowed women to take exams for the first time. Concrete change within the university would have to wait until the first female colleges were formed, and following the foundation of Girton College (1869) and Newnham (1872) women were allowed into lectures, albeit at the discretion of the lecturer. By 1881, women were allowed to sit university examinations, and in 1921 were awarded "titles" as a result, although they would have to wait until 1947 before they were awarded degrees, and 1958 before they achieved equal rights to their male counterparts.

In 1954, a third women's college, New Hall, was founded. Wolfson was the first mixed college and was founded in 1965. 1972 saw three men's colleges (Churchill, Clare and King's) admit women for the first time. Cambridge now has no all-male colleges and Girton is also mixed, although both Newnham and New Hall remain all-female.

A view of the Clough and Kennedy buildings of Newnham College.

A view of Pfeiffer Arch and the Old Hall building.

A daylight view of Sidgwick Hall and the sunken garden of Newnham College.

The college attracts a wide range of female students, including those who might not be willing or able to study at mixed colleges for cultural reasons.

In 1928, Newnham and Girton Colleges were among the venues for a series of lectures by Virginia Woolf that resulted in the famous book-length essay A Room of One's Own.

For information about women in senior University positions see also http://www.arch.cam.ac.uk/~pjs1011/Pams.html

The progress of women in the university owes a lot to the pioneering work undertaken by Henry Sidgwick, fellow of Trinity. Together with Anne Clough – the college's first principal – and Eleanor Balfour (Sidgwick's future wife), in 1871 Sidgwick oversaw the purchase of 74 Regent Street, housing five female students who wished to attend lectures but did not live near enough to the university to do so. After moving to Merton House on Queen's Road the next year, in 1875 the first building was built on the current site on Sidgwick Avenue, now called Old Hall. Between 1875 and 1910 the college continued to grow with the construction of three more buildings.

In this initial period, all the buildings were designed by Basil Champneys in "Queen Anne" style to much acclaim. These and later buildings are grouped around some of the most attractive gardens in Cambridge, hidden from the road by the buildings that surround them. Not only are they lovely gardens, but (unlike most of Cambridge's colleges) all residents can walk on the grass for most of the year. Newnham also had laboratories because women were not permitted into the university labs. These now house a drama space and a library. This library was originally Newnham students' primary reference source since women were not allowed into the University Library. It remains one of the largest college libraries in Cambridge.

Newnham taught a varied curriculum, tailored to the students who generally had far less formal education than their male counterparts (unlike Girton which accepted women on the same terms, and taught them the same curriculum as men in the other colleges). Although it was usual for a male student to take his degree after three years of study, not all Newnham students completed an entire degree course after four years' work.

With the conversion of the last men-only colleges into mixed colleges in the 1970s and 80s, there were inevitably questions about whether any of the remaining women-only colleges would also change to mixed colleges. This seems particularly unlikely at Newnham, which has a proud reputation in standing up for women working in the University (see first section).

See also Category:Alumni of Newnham College, Cambridge

Name	Birth	Death	Career
Diane Abbott	1953		Politician
Kate Bertram	1912	1999	Biologist
Mary Boyce	1920	2006	British Iranist and doyenne of Zoroastrian studies at SOAS
Eleanor Bron	1938		Actress
A. S. Byatt	1936		Writer
Joan Curran	1916	1999	Physicist
Nora David	1913		Politician
Margaret Drabble	1939		Writer
Sarah Dunant	1950		Writer, Broadcaster
Patricia Duncker	1951		Novelist
Rosalind Franklin	1920	1958	Physical chemist, Crystallographer
Jane Goodall	1934		Primatologist, Anthropologist
Germaine Greer	1939		Australian academic, Feminist writer
Jane Grigson	1928	1990	Cookery writer
Patricia Hewitt	1948		Politician
Penelope Leach	1937		Psychologist, Writer
Jessica Mann	1937		Writer
Miriam Margolyes	1941		Actress
Iris Murdoch	1919	1999	Writer
Sylvia Plath	1932	1963	American poet
Amber Reeves	1887	1981	Writer
Audrey Richards	1899	1984	Social anthropologist
Emma Thompson	1959		Actress
Constance Tipper	1894	1995	Metallurgist, Crystallographer
Claire Tomalin	1933		Writer
Michelene Wandor	1940		Dramatist
Katharine Whitehorn	1926		Writer
Olivia Williams	1968		Actress

For details of graduates in mathematics up to 1940 see

List of graduates of the University of Cambridge on Mathematical Women in the British Isles, 1878-1940

Newnham College was the clear conceptual and architectural inspiration for University Women's College at the University of Melbourne, Australia (now University College).