{"id":2862,"date":"2024-10-30T21:51:12","date_gmt":"2024-10-30T21:51:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/london1.one\/?p=2862"},"modified":"2024-10-30T21:51:15","modified_gmt":"2024-10-30T21:51:15","slug":"history-of-the-womens-education-development-in-london","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/london1.one\/en\/eternal\/history-of-the-womens-education-development-in-london-2862","title":{"rendered":"History of the women&#8217;s education development in London"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Everyone knows that women have been trying to reach equality for a long time. It took a long time for society to change its perception of women. This process continues in the modern world. Still, there are countries where women have almost no rights. In other parts of the planet, this problem became popular several centuries ago. For example, the British feminist movement with its protests, rallies, lectures and other activities. The issue of giving women the right to education remained important for a long time too. What can the history of London tell us about it and who was a pioneer in this field? Learn more at <a href=\"https:\/\/london1.one\/en\">london1.one<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_74 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a0dbf405f722\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a0dbf405f722\"  aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/london1.one\/en\/eternal\/history-of-the-womens-education-development-in-london-2862\/#Prerequisites_for_the_development_of_womens_education\" >Prerequisites for the development of women&#8217;s education<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/london1.one\/en\/eternal\/history-of-the-womens-education-development-in-london-2862\/#Londons_first_educational_institutions_for_girls_and_women\" >London\u2019s first educational institutions for girls and women<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/london1.one\/en\/eternal\/history-of-the-womens-education-development-in-london-2862\/#The_University_of_London_opening_its_doors_to_women\" >The University of London opening its doors to women<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/london1.one\/en\/eternal\/history-of-the-womens-education-development-in-london-2862\/#Modern_opportunities\" >Modern opportunities<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Prerequisites_for_the_development_of_womens_education\"><\/span>Prerequisites for the development of women&#8217;s education<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>If we look more globally at the history of women\u2019s education, we can see that it can be traced down to ancient times. For example, some archaeological findings indicated that women studied writing and were engaged in philosophical research in ancient Egypt and Greece. Apparently, then a woman had a slightly better position in society than, for example, in the Middle Ages in Europe. Moreover, there were cases when women were given the same knowledge and skills as the Spartans. However, it was hardly considered the norm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.london1.one\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/55\/2024\/07\/ad_4nxfizrxpwcrpxecnyzxzgjkeveqxtnplf2ljtdsdrldhef8kgzoqajycy4ixphosv-exvqspkxo8vwxbqbd8mv38gbsujeo0w_klnq1tvwdssaryjr6ra8rtzstkwdjwclmkmxfgdsk9gio2k3oz1zhinqt7keydcmm5j04dxhs3jomugoelq.png\" alt=\"\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Photo source: The British Museum<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Until about the middle of the 18th century, there was no question of giving a woman the opportunity to obtain an educational degree or hold an important position in England. From childhood, girls were taught to play musical instruments, embroidery, the basics of literacy and other skills that would help them find a good husband in the future. The level of knowledge also depended on the social status of the girl&#8217;s family. However, in any case, tutoring or passing on the mother&#8217;s experience weren\u2019t intended to raise a person who would value herself, listen to the inner voice and realise desires. For a long time, a woman was just a mother and faithful wife. Maybe, it&#8217;s not so bad. However, society constantly imposed the opinion that she should sacrifice herself for the sake of an ideal image. Women lost their individuality and were condemned for interest in science, politics and other important spheres of social life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Many years passed before women realised their power again. Suffragism contributed to radical changes in London and throughout Great Britain. Although this movement was mainly focused on the women\u2019s struggle for the right to vote, it also underlie modern feminism. In particular, <a href=\"https:\/\/londonka.uk\/uk\/eternal\/chomu-yiyi-vvazhayut-odniyeyu-iz-zasnovnycz-feminizmu-abo-yaku-rol-u-czij-sferi-vidigrala-meri-volstonkraft\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Mary Wollstonecraft<\/a> tried to highlight women\u2019s problems in her literary works at the end of the 18th century. She repeatedly helped to change the lives of many women who were subjected to violence, family abuse and the negative attitude of society. Later, Annie Kenney, Emmeline Pankhurst, Lucy Minnie Baldock and many others took to the streets of London demanding equal rights. Suffragism became a powerful force leading to a chain reaction. Women began to speak not only about suffrage but also about everything that had been silenced for centuries. Thus, this movement played an important role in the development of women&#8217;s education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Londons_first_educational_institutions_for_girls_and_women\"><\/span>London\u2019s first educational institutions for girls and women<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Unfortunately, the residents of 17th and 18th-century London encountered inequality from childhood. Very often, the reason was the social status of the family. Even boys from poor families didn\u2019t have the opportunity to get a proper education. Literacy was considered a sign of wealth. Later, the first schools for boys began to open in London. North London Collegiate School, the first school in England to introduce a curriculum for girls, appeared in 1850. However, there were no joint educational institutions for many years ahead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bedford College, the first college in Great Britain where women could receive higher education, was opened in 1849. This event was extremely important for the women of that time and for the development of the education system in general. There were many women who were interested in medicine, philosophy, mathematics and other fields of science even before that. Moreover, some of their discoveries and inventions are used by humanity in the modern world. However, they didn\u2019t have the opportunity to obtain a scientific degree and officially work on their own research. Only a few were able to fight the system. It is difficult to imagine the amount of talented people London lost at that time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"The_University_of_London_opening_its_doors_to_women\"><\/span>The University of London opening its doors to women<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.london1.one\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/55\/2024\/07\/ad_4nxdp6l5fr18hdsxckklvhtexcqux4qjcgvkuouxxmtpylywvmgf1nhyq81va8cycmkfj3ozre96npftvi2wxzvjvjh7lljknac0tvatild2wt0ud8e5lrgftzh4evycus5dsp8b7apm-lymmml-oox8yl5uskeydcmm5j04dxhs3jomugoelq.png\" alt=\"\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Photo source: University of London<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The important event that happened in 1868 contributed to the development of women&#8217;s higher education. Then the University of London&#8217;s Senate voted to allow women to sit for entrance exams. It was the first time in Great Britain that women got access to university education. They had to master a huge amount of material to enter the University of London. The exams involved writing six papers in English and Latin, geography, philosophy, history, two of the four languages \u200b\u200boffered and botany or chemistry. However, even under such conditions, women weren\u2019t given a diploma (like men) in the first years of the programme&#8217;s existence. Educational institutions gave women certificates that confirmed their qualifications. About ten years later, representatives of the educational sphere decided to correct that situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.london1.one\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/55\/2024\/07\/ad_4nxe0vuz7xbiefihqigt6uzt9khl4ahvz9h7ck-moby0ztchpjkh3-bnzk3fchlbgu2-sjsp4qqizet-lbjsypa5j5qfm25xz8bqofvjdj45ltuawfm_lx4tj4tyarpxyipk_ipg4mpz8pnsc3yobzgc967ekeydcmm5j04dxhs3jomugoelq.png\" alt=\"\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Photo source: The Victorian Web<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The pioneers were nine women who entered the University of London when it announced enrolment of female students. Later, women&#8217;s education became more accessible. However, it didn\u2019t solve the problem of society&#8217;s attitude towards women. Quite often, they faced inequality already after graduating from the university, at their workplace. Many (even other women) didn\u2019t perceive them as scientists for more than a century. Still, London can boast of computer programming genius <a href=\"https:\/\/londonka.uk\/uk\/eternal\/yak-vidomij-zhinczi-z-londona-vdalosya-dosyagty-uspihu-v-nauczi-u-hih-stolitti\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Ada Lovelace<\/a> or outstanding doctor Elizabeth Garrett Anderson. All those small steps and decisions in the field of women&#8217;s education have contributed to significant results, which can be observed in the modern world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Modern_opportunities\"><\/span>Modern opportunities<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The modern education system began to form in the second half of the 20th century. Then Great Britain joined the European Union, which didn\u2019t accept discrimination based on gender or marital status in such areas as employment, education, housing and provision of goods and services. So from that time on, London\u2019s universities couldn\u2019t give preference to male students. Modern residents have opportunities that many women of the 18th century couldn\u2019t even imagine. City\u2019s higher educational institutions offer a wide selection of educational programmes and their representatives don\u2019t pay attention to the gender of future students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.london1.one\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/55\/2024\/07\/ad_4nxfxjyx-0r9uhwvunxttq6v0cfrygdi_m9j0cxazcpasdlwzkqkwpat5avvqq14023veujfk1gwv3vlvexoguij0wc4lbjgaed6ks-1d7fa994vr9o0-ugzt5rqv9kpwcktuodkkrrnhin3emrzbr19-kzz2keydcmm5j04dxhs3jomugoelq.png\" alt=\"\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The modern capital of Great Britain offers various programmes for women from other countries of the world, including those where women&#8217;s education still remains inaccessible. For many, these grants and projects are a chance to do what they love, choose a future profession and simply start a new life. All in all, women\u2019s education in London has undergone global changes over the past few centuries, but there is always space for improvement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Everyone knows that women have been trying to reach equality for a long time. It took a long time for society to change its perception of women. This process continues in the modern world. Still, there are countries where women have almost no rights. In other parts of the planet, this problem became popular several [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":323,"featured_media":2491,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1166],"tags":[2362,2355,2352,2359,2353,2361,2354,2351,2357,2358,2360,2349,2350,2363,2356],"motype":[1158],"moformat":[93],"moimportance":[82,78,81],"class_list":{"0":"post-2862","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-education","8":"tag-19th-century-womens-education","9":"tag-british-women-educators","10":"tag-development-of-womens-schools","11":"tag-early-womens-schools-london","12":"tag-education-rights-for-women","13":"tag-educational-reform-for-women","14":"tag-evolution-of-female-learning","15":"tag-female-academic-pioneers","16":"tag-higher-education-for-women","17":"tag-historical-womens-colleges","18":"tag-women-in-london-academia","19":"tag-womens-colleges-origins","20":"tag-womens-education-history-london","21":"tag-womens-empowerment-education","22":"tag-womens-universities-history","23":"motype-eternal","24":"moformat-longrid-korotka","25":"moimportance-aktualna-bilshe-roku","26":"moimportance-golovna-novina","27":"moimportance-retranslyacziya-v-agregatori"},"modified_by":"Inna Hananova","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/london1.one\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/london1.one\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/london1.one\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/london1.one\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/323"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/london1.one\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2862"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/london1.one\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2862\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2863,"href":"https:\/\/london1.one\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2862\/revisions\/2863"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/london1.one\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/london1.one\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/london1.one\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/london1.one\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2862"},{"taxonomy":"motype","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/london1.one\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/motype?post=2862"},{"taxonomy":"moformat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/london1.one\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/moformat?post=2862"},{"taxonomy":"moimportance","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/london1.one\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/moimportance?post=2862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}