Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge
Encyclopedia
Colleges of the University of Cambridge
This is a list of the colleges within the University of Cambridge. These colleges are the primary source of accommodation for undergraduates and graduates at the University and at the undergraduate level have responsibility for admitting students and organising their tuition. They also provide...
of the University of Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
. It is a women-only college, which admits only postgraduates and undergraduates aged 21 or over.
The college was founded in 1965 by women researchers and lecturers of the University of Cambridge who felt that women were not thoroughly represented within the university. It was originally known as the Lucy Cavendish Collegiate Society. It moved to its current site in 1970, was granted consent to call itself "Lucy Cavendish College" in 1986, and gained the status of a full college of the university by Royal Charter
Royal Charter
A royal charter is a formal document issued by a monarch as letters patent, granting a right or power to an individual or a body corporate. They were, and are still, used to establish significant organizations such as cities or universities. Charters should be distinguished from warrants and...
in 1997.
The college is named in honour of Lucy Cavendish
Lucy Cavendish
Lucy Caroline Cavendish, Lady Frederick Cavendish was a pioneer of women's education....
(1841–1925), who campaigned for the reform of women's education.
History
The origins of Lucy Cavendish College are traceable to "The Dining Group" which sought to provide the stimulation of high tableHigh Table
At Oxford, Cambridge and Durham colleges — and other, similarly traditional and prestigious UK academic institutions At Oxford, Cambridge and Durham colleges — and other, similarly traditional and prestigious UK academic institutions At Oxford, Cambridge and Durham colleges — and other, similarly...
conversation to its members who were not Fellows of Colleges. At the time there were only two women's colleges in Cambridge, Girton
Girton College, Cambridge
Girton College is one of the 31 constituent colleges of the University of Cambridge. It was England's first residential women's college, established in 1869 by Emily Davies and Barbara Bodichon. The full college status was only received in 1948 and marked the official admittance of women to the...
and Newnham
Newnham College, Cambridge
Newnham College is a women-only constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England.The college was founded in 1871 by Henry Sidgwick, and was the second Cambridge college to admit women after Girton College...
, and these were not enough to accommodate the large numbers of women recruited to teach and provide academically based services.
The college was named in honour of Lucy Caroline Cavendish, a pioneer of women's education and the great aunt of one of its founders, Margaret Braithwaite.
The first president of Lucy Cavendish College, from 1965 to 1970, was Anna McClean Bidder
Anna McClean Bidder
Anna McClean Bidder was a British zoologist and academic. She was the co-founder and first principal of Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge....
, one of the founding members of "The Dining Group" and a zoologist specializing in cephalopod
Cephalopod
A cephalopod is any member of the molluscan class Cephalopoda . These exclusively marine animals are characterized by bilateral body symmetry, a prominent head, and a set of arms or tentacles modified from the primitive molluscan foot...
digestion
Digestion
Digestion is the mechanical and chemical breakdown of food into smaller components that are more easily absorbed into a blood stream, for instance. Digestion is a form of catabolism: a breakdown of large food molecules to smaller ones....
; this accounts for the presence of the nautilus
Nautilus
Nautilus is the common name of marine creatures of cephalopod family Nautilidae, the sole extant family of the superfamily Nautilaceae and of its smaller but near equal suborder, Nautilina. It comprises six living species in two genera, the type of which is the genus Nautilus...
shell
Seashell
A seashell or sea shell, also known simply as a shell, is a hard, protective outer layer created by an animal that lives in the sea. The shell is part of the body of the animal. Empty seashells are often found washed up on beaches by beachcombers...
in the college crest
Crest (heraldry)
A crest is a component of an heraldic display, so called because it stands on top of a helmet, as the crest of a jay stands on the bird's head....
.
Anne Bidder was succeeded by Kate Bertram
Kate Bertram
Cicely Kate Bertam was a British academic specialising in fish. Part of the 1930s "Cambridge school" of biologists, she contributed to two seminal reports on freshwater fish in eastern Africa....
until 1979, Phyllis Hetzel, Dame Anne Warburton (the first female British ambassador in 1976), Baroness Pauline Perry, and Dame Veronica Sutherland.
The current and 7th President of Lucy Cavendish is Professor Janet Todd
Janet Todd
Janet Margaret Todd is a Welsh-born academic and a well-respected author of many books on women in literature. Todd was educated at Cambridge University and the University of Florida, where she undertook a doctorate on the poet John Clare...
, internationally renowned scholar of early women writers, who took up the post in 2008.
Buildings and grounds
For the first few years of the College's existence it occupied rooms in Silver Street and then Northampton Street until it moved to its current site in 1970 on the corner of Madingley RoadMadingley Road
Madingley Road is a major arterial road linking central Cambridge, England with Junction 13 of the M11 motorway. It passes by West Cambridge, a major new site where some University of Cambridge departments are being relocated....
and Lady Margaret Road, near Westminster College
Westminster College, Cambridge
Westminster College in Cambridge is a theological college of the United Reformed Church, formerly the Presbyterian Church of England. Its principal purpose is the training of clergy for ordination, but is also used more widely for training within the denomination...
and St John's College
St John's College, Cambridge
St John's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college's alumni include nine Nobel Prize winners, six Prime Ministers, three archbishops, at least two princes, and three Saints....
, which provided some of the land.
The majority of the buildings, including Warburton Hall and the Library were completed in the 1990s.
In 1991 the college bought Balliol Croft, a neighbouring house to its grounds and former home of the economist Alfred Marshall
Alfred Marshall
Alfred Marshall was an Englishman and one of the most influential economists of his time. His book, Principles of Economics , was the dominant economic textbook in England for many years...
and his wife Mary Paley Marshall
Mary Paley Marshall
Mary Paley Marshall , born Mary Paley, was an economist and one of the first women to study at Cambridge University....
, with whom he wrote his first economics textbook. The building was renamed Marshall House in his honour and used for student accommodation until 2001 when it was converted back to its original layout and used as the President's Lodge.
Student body
Lucy Cavendish has one of the most diverse student bodies in the University community. It has approximately 280 students divided equally between Undergraduates and Graduates. The college web site states that "Students from every corner of the UK mix with students from around the world. Students with ‘AccessAccess course
The Access to Higher Education Diploma is a qualification which prepares students - usually mature students, although the minimum age to be able to study for an access diploma is actually nineteen - for study as an undergraduate at university...
’ qualifications interact with students who have studied for A-levels
GCE Advanced Level
The Advanced Level General Certificate of Education, commonly referred to as an A-level, is a qualification offered by education institutions in England, Northern Ireland, Wales, Cameroon, and the Cayman Islands...
and the International Baccalaureate. Former bankers, singers, journalists and police officers mix with recent graduates of universities from around the world. Women come at any age to study any subject offered by the University."
Following the 2007 announcement that Oxford University's
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
last remaining women-only college, St Hilda's
St Hilda's College, Oxford
St Hilda's College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England.The college was founded in 1893 as a hall for women, and remained an all-women's college until 2006....
, would admit men, Cambridge is the only university in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
where colleges have admissions policies that discriminate on the basis of gender. Lucy Cavendish is the most notable example of these as it not only bars male students but male staff are also not eligible to become fellows of the college.
Some notable alumnae
- Noeleen HeyzerNoeleen HeyzerNoeleen Heyzer currently serves as the Executive Secretary of United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific . She was appointed to the position by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in July 2007....
, Executive Director of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) - Marcia Schofield, Keyboardist, The Fall
- Cate Muther, founder of the Women's Technology ClusterWomen's Technology ClusterThe Women's Technology Cluster or WTC was renamed, Astia in 2007.Astia is a global not-for-profit organization built on a community of experts whose goal is to ensure the success of women in high-growth start-ups.Headquartered in San Francisco, California, U.S., the WTC was founded as part of the...
- Elizabeth Speller, Author of Sunlight on the Garden: a family in love, war and madness; The Return of Captain John Emmett
- Louise Foxcroft, Author of The Making of Addiction: The 'use and abuse' of opium in nineteenth-century Britain; Hot Flushes, Cold Science: A History of the Modern Menopause
- Elena Ambrosiadou, Entrepreneur, Hedge-Fund Specialist, and Financier
- Caron Freeborn, Author
- Margrit Fauland-Blackburn, Editor of The Drawbridge
- Pauline Dawes, Managing Director of SOMI Trailers
- Shevaun Wilder, Theatre Producer
Honorary Fellows
- See also :Category:Honorary Fellows of Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge
- Prof. Carol Black
- Prof. E. Margaret Burbridge
- Dame Judi DenchJudi DenchDame Judith Olivia "Judi" Dench, CH, DBE, FRSA is an English film, stage and television actress.Dench made her professional debut in 1957 with the Old Vic Company. Over the following few years she played in several of William Shakespeare's plays in such roles as Ophelia in Hamlet, Juliet in Romeo...
- Lady Grantchester
- Judith Hanratty
- Dame Pauline Harris
- Mrs Phyllis Hetzel
- HM Queen Margrethe of DenmarkMargrethe II of DenmarkMargrethe II is the Queen regnant of the Kingdom of Denmark. In 1972 she became the first female monarch of Denmark since Margaret I, ruler of the Scandinavian countries in 1375-1412 during the Kalmar Union.-Early life:...
- Dr Barbara Oldham
- Baroness Perry of SouthwarkPauline Perry, Baroness Perry of SouthwarkPauline Perry, Baroness Perry of Southwark is an educationalist, a Conservative politician and a member of the British House of Lords. She was Chief Inspector of Schools in England....
- Prof. Alison RichardAlison RichardDame Alison Fettes Richard, DBE, DL was the 344th Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge. She was the first female Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge since the post became full-time...
- Dame Cath TizardCatherine TizardDame Catherine Anne Tizard, was Mayor of Auckland City and the 16th Governor-General of New Zealand, the first woman to hold either office.-Early life:...
- Mrs Claire TomalinClaire TomalinClaire Tomalin is an English biographer and journalist. She was educated at Newnham College, Cambridge.She was literary editor of the New Statesman and of the Sunday Times, and has written several noted biographies...
- Baroness Trumpington of SandwichJean Barker, Baroness TrumpingtonJean Alys Barker, Baroness Trumpington, DCVO, PC is a Conservative member of the House of Lords.Born Jean Alys Campbell-Harris to Major Arthur Campbell-Harris and Doris Robson, she was educated privately. During World War II, she worked in Naval intelligence at Bletchley Park...
- Anna FordAnna FordAnna Ford is a retired English journalist and television presenter, best known as a newsreader....
- Mrs Anne Elizabeth CookAnne OwersDame Anne Elizabeth Owers, Mrs. Cook, née Spark, DBE is Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Prisons. Owers is the fifth holder of the post, and was appointed in August 2001, succeeding David Ramsbotham...
- Dame Stella RimingtonStella RimingtonDame Stella Rimington, DCB is a British author, who was the Director General of MI5 from 1992 to 1996. She was the first female DG of MI5, and the first DG whose name was publicised on appointment...
- Dr Cynthia GlassmanCynthia GlassmanDr. Cynthia Aaron Glassman of Alexandria, Virginia was a commissioner of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission as well as the Under Secretary for Economic Affairs....