Women's Rights

On Friday I also went on a walking tour of Oxford. It was unfortunately more a tour of the colleges than a tour of the city, but still interesting. I learned lots of interesting tid bits, including finding out that one of the pubs we've been frequenting--The Turf--is the pub where Bill Clinton "didn't inhale."

What I found astonishing, however, was learning about how late in the game the colleges here accepted women as students. Oriole College, the college Clinton attended for two years, was the last to accept women and didn't give in to the pressure until 1984. Even then some professors refused to participate, and would walk out of the lecture hall if the class was mixed.

The picture above was taken in the chapel of Oriole College. Since women were not allowed to attend the college they were not allowed in the chapel for service, even though the fellows were allowed to be married since the 19th century, I believe. If one of their wives wished to attend the service, she would have to go in through a separate outside entrance and sit in a room behind these curtains so she could hear the sermon but not be seen.

There's apparently a book about all of this called The Women of Oxford.