'No women at Cambridge!' The 1897 protests, Part 1

Angry clamour in King's Parade

(UA Phot.174/3), Cambridge University Library digital archive

On this sunny May day, King’s Parade in Cambridge looks much the same as in the photograph above, if considerably less crowded. This is the first of a special two-part post marking the anniversary of 21st May 1897, a notorious date in the history of the University, when a vote to award women the title of their degrees turned into a protest against women’s right to study at Cambridge. Attitudes towards access to higher education are very different today, thanks to the efforts of women and men who worked together over the years. This post contains references to deeply unpleasant historic views of women. (Part 2, ‘The Woman Cyclist’, describes what happened later that day; both posts updated in 2025.)