March is Women’s History Month, a fitting time to remember the women who pioneered higher education in the UK. History can also shed light on why some inequalities still persist in the higher education sector.
The UK’s first university for women, Bedford College, was established in 1849 and educated many influential women, before merging with the University of London. One of these women was an African American abolitionist named Sarah Parker Redmond, who enrolled at Bedford in 1859 after travelling to England as part of her anti-slavery lecture tour. Fighting segregation and sexism in her educational journey in the US, Redmond paved a similar path that many women in the 19th century had to—one of self-education. She profusely read the books filling her family home, especially those from the Anti-Slavery Society.
While in England, Redmond made friends and lived with the founder of Bedford College, philanthropist and women’s education advocate Elizabeth Jesser Reid. Alongside continuing the anti-slavery work she had been doing since she was 16, Redmond gained a formal education in language and liberal arts at Bedford that was unavailable to many other women at the time. She was likely also the first Black student at the University.
Nearly 20 years after Bedford College was established, a group of women known as the London Nine sat a “Special Examination for Women” at the University of London, making them the first women to access British university education. Among these women was Eliza Orme, the first woman to get a law degree in England, and historical writer Louise Hume Creighton. In 1978, the University of London became the first UK university to award degrees to women on equal grounds with men.
It’s easy to take women’s education for granted in the UK. This is especially because women have overtaken their male peers in higher education, making up 57% of the students in 2022. Compare this to the early 1980s, when only 40% of degrees were awarded to women. Over 50% of the UK population goes onto higher education. It’s an increasingly common route to take after school.
At the most fundamental level, women like Sarah Parker Redmond and the London Nine serve as a reminder that education has not always been a given, and still isn’t, for many women across the globe. The UN labelled education the ‘basic building block of every society’ because it creates productive and healthy communities. The 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights also asserts the right to education for all. People should not have to fight for the right to learn, as is currently happening in Afghanistan, where the Taliban has shut women out of secondary and higher education.
Knowledge can be used for good or the opposite, but in the case of women like Sarah Parker Redmond and Eliza Orne, positive social change is a legacy left by their intellect. Redmond was a voice for women slaves subjected to sexual abuse and the Black American population enduring unimaginable horrors. Outside of her fulfilling law practice, Orme also advocated for better working conditions for women. Education was the first step to these women’s achievements.
Despite the progress that has been achieved for women in the UK, there are problems still facing women in the higher education sector. The Times Higher Education reported in 2019 that women university staff are paid 15.1% less than men. The gender pay gap is part of the reason UK university staff in the University and College Union went on strike in the past year. Furthermore, women are underrepresented in leadership positions in universities despite making up 55% of university staff.
The UK has long been admired for its higher education standards, and though women have achieved equal access to this education, it does not take away from the work that must be done to close these other gaps. These statistics bear the mark of history, showing the long-term inequality that persists even after equalising everyone before the law. Only once we face this will the UK truly be a pioneer for higher education.
Although Redmond and the London Nine were born into relatively well-connected, liberal families who had the resources to kickstart learning, they are also a testament to the simple power of a love of learning. Sarah Parker Redmond wrote in the The English Woman’s Journal in 1861: “My strongest desire through life has been to be educated. I found the most exquisite pleasure in reading and as we had no library, I read every book which came in my way, and I longed for more.”
In the UK, higher education is often pursued for its money-making value post-graduation. Having a degree is also sometimes associated with higher social status. As university students, it’s easy to go through the motions to get that treasured diploma. Remembering history not only helps us appreciate the rights women now have, but the inherent value of learning, separate from societal expectations.