Over the 2022 – 2023 academic year King’s marked the 50th anniversary of the admission of women to the College as undergraduate students. Alongside Clare and Churchill, King’s was the first of the Cambridge all-male Colleges to admit women, in 1972.
The 50th anniversary of the admission of women has been an opportunity to celebrate the impact of King’s women – alumnae, students, Fellows and staff - and how they trailblaze, innovate and inspire in myriad ways; as well as to look at what still needs to be done to address the challenges that remain in gender equality and women’s education.
The pages available here showcase all the work that has been put in to commemorate this anniversary, with a series of talks throughout the year and the 50 Years of Women at King’s Festival being the finale in June. 50 Portraits - An Exhibition, by Jooney Woodward, was unveiled at the Festival and has become part of the permanent art collection at King’s, as well as available to view on this site.
The History
Admitting women as undergraduate students was a landmark decision for the College; but King’s has always supported women’s education at Cambridge. In a University vote in 1920 that rejected the proposal to make women students members of the University, King’s had a substantial majority of its Fellows in favour. When in 1948 the University at last produced a majority vote in favour of Girton and Newnham becoming full Colleges and their students full members, it was two Fellows of King’s (Richard Braithwaite and Kenneth Harrison) who led the initiative. And when New Hall, now Murray Edwards, was inaugurated in 1954, King’s was the College that made the largest financial contribution.
In November 1968 the College’s Council considered a paper prepared by the JCR recommending co-education at King’s, which noted that "We have presented our case for Co-Education in terms of ‘social justice’, but we maintain that in any case substantial social and academic benefits will accrue from this change." When the Provost, Edmund Leach, put forward the proposal to admit women to the College’s Governing Body in May 1969, the Fellowship voted overwhelmingly in favour. It took a further three years to complete preparations, but in 1972, 47 female students were admitted out of a total of 452, as well as Fellows including Tess Adkins, who in 1981 would become the first female Senior Tutor of a previously all-male Cambridge College.