Title
Gendered Spaces and Political Identity: debating societies in English women's colleges, 1890-1914
Publication Date
2009
Document Type
Article
Abstract
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, debating political questions in spaces like the Oxford and Cambridge University Unions proved inspirational for ‘Oxbridge’ men, but these doors were closed to women. Although women were denied full membership to these Unions, female students practiced the art of debate in political and debating societies created within their own colleges. This article chronicles the construction of a political education for women through the use of debating societies in women’s colleges at Oxford and Cambridge universities and the University of London. Women’s active participation in these societies suggests that female students were not only claiming and redefining public space, but were also establishing a collegiate political identity.
Original Citation
Wiggins, Sarah. (2009). Gendered Spaces and Political Identity: debating societies in English women's colleges, 1890-1914. Women’s History Review, 18(5), 737-752. https://doi.org/10.1080/09612020903282068
Identifier
Virtual Commons Citation
Wiggins, Sarah (2009). Gendered Spaces and Political Identity: debating societies in English women's colleges, 1890-1914. In History Faculty Publications. Paper 29.
Available at: https://vc.bridgew.edu/history_fac/29