Academic Careers for Women

The creation of the women’s colleges created the possibility that women might pursue an academic career within the University.

To forge such careers, women have had to battle discrimination and fight for recognition that has not always been forthcoming from their male peers.

By fighting these battles, Cambridge women have helped create the modern academic profession. The first generation of female dons was able to emerge because their institutions subscribed to a model in which Cambridge colleges appointed their own lecturers, committed to teaching and scholarship as a career. Girton and Newnham had no use for the old model which saw fellowships as prizes for intellectual distinction, with no duties attached.

The number of college lectureships was limited: there were only 30 academic posts for women in Cambridge in 1924 (and around 120 nationally). This changed as the university expanded, and began taking responsibility for teaching back from the colleges. The number of University lecturers increased from 28 in 1884 to 946 in 1962; and women became eligible for these jobs in 1926. But equality remains a goal, not an achievement: women are still underrepresented in academic posts, and the persistent gender pay gap is just one of the issues that continues to drive feminist activism.