“If a female had once passed the gate …”- Exhibition marks 100 years of Trinity Women Graduates

Posted on: 27 April 2022

“If a female had once passed the gate it would be practically impossible to watch what buildings or chambers she had entered or how long she might remain there.” 

In 1895, the Board of Trinity College Dublin identified this as one of a number of dangers associated with admitting female students to the College.

Less than 10 years later and in the same month as the death of Provost George Salmon, who had famously proclaimed “over my dead body” will women enter the college, the first three female students were admitted to Trinity in January 1904. Trinity was the first of the historic universities of Ireland and Britain to admit women.

This statement from the Board expounding the risks of female students is one of the fascinating items featured in a new exhibition charting the story of women graduates of Trinity and their hard-fought victories to be acknowledged as equal citizens, students, academics and graduates.

The exhibition, which will be launched this evening [Wed, April 27^th], marks the centenary of the foundation of Trinity Women Graduates, in 1922.

Entitled ‘If a female had once passed the gate … ’: Trinity Women Graduates Centenary Exhibition 1922-2022, the exhibition is on display in the Long Room as part of the Book of Kells exhibition. It is also available as an online exhibition and on Google Cultural Institute.

Developed in partnership with the Library of Trinity College Dublin, the exhibition features highlights of the Trinity Women Graduates archive. Photographs, letters, administrative records and collected reminiscences trace the long campaign for admission, the achievements of early women graduates and the struggle for equality by female students and staff.

It forms part of the wider Trinity Women Graduates Archive Project which involves the cataloguing, conservation, and partial digitisation of the Trinity Women Graduates archive as part of the Virtual Trinity Library project.

Highlights of the exhibition:

• A statement from the Board of Trinity College Dublin in 1895 on the feasibility and risks associated with admitting women to Trinity. It argued that “if a female had once passed the gate it would be practically impossible to watch what buildings or chambers she had entered” and noted that “parents who place their sons in residence in Trinity College do so in the persuasion that their morals will be subject to some supervision”.
• Petition signed by 10,560 “Irish Women of the educated classes” in favour of the admission of women to Trinity College Dublin, 1892. Notable signatories include Lady Jane Francesca Wilde and Constance Wilde.
• Official ‘Regulations for Women’, 1908. Once admitted, female students were subject to strict regulations, which emphasised the separation of the male and female student populations in everything except lectures and exams. The regulations stipulated that women must wear their formal university attire in the college squares and parks unless accompanied by a chaperone. In the 1960 women were still refused campus accommodation and had to leave Trinity by 6pm.
• Photograph of the July 1906 graduation of the ‘Steamboat Ladies’ – students from Oxford and Cambridge universities, which at that time refused to confer degrees on women, who travelled to Dublin for conferring. Between 1904 and 1907 hundreds of women from Oxbridge women’s colleges travelled to Dublin on steamboats to receive their degrees.
• Flyer for DUWGA Jubilee Dinner, 1954, which was the first time women could host in the College Dining Hall. It was only in 1965 that women were allowed to dine at Commons in the Dining Hall, and in 1968 when women were finally admitted as members of the student debating society, the College Historical Society (the Hist).
• Calligraphic memorial of the first women to be elected as Fellows of the College, June 1968.

Ciara Daly, Project Archivist, Library of Trinity College Dublin, and curator of the exhibition, explained:

The main aim of Trinity Women Graduates was to afford members an opportunity to stay connected with the university and each other. The archive comprises minute books, accounts, administrative records and photographs. It also contains reminiscences that were collected for Susan Parkes’ book A Danger To The Men?: A History of Women in Trinity College, Dublin 1904-2004. These records and reminiscences give a deeper insight into the lived experiences of these women and ensures that the voices and experiences of these women form part of the historical record of both Irish society in the twentieth century and Trinity College Dublin.

Grace O’Malley, Chair of Trinity Women Graduates Centenary Committee, commented:

Following a long campaign, the first three women were admitted to Trinity in January 1904. A further 47 were admitted the following September. Once admitted female students were subject to strict regulations because their presence was judged to be a danger to the men. These rules and regulations did not deter women and by 1922 there were sufficient women in Trinity to warrant the foundation of an alumni society. A century later, sixty per cent of the student body is female and the university is led by a woman.

More about Trinity Women Graduates

The association was established in 1922 as the Dublin University Women Graduates Association, at a time when women had to be off campus by 6pm and could not dine in the Dining Hall. What began as a way for a small group of women to keep in touch with Trinity, and each other, has flourished into a vibrant inclusive community of women with a varied programme of events throughout the year. Although the name has changed to Trinity Women Graduates, the aims remain the same as those set out by the pioneering Trinity women graduates of the 1920s. It continues to connect, support and inspire current and future generations of Trinity women graduates.

More about the Trinity Women Graduates Archive

The archival records of the Trinity Women Graduates were transferred to the Library of Trinity College Dublin in 2018. The Trinity Women Graduates Archive Exhibition marks the centenary of the Trinity Women Graduates Association in 2022. The records of the association will be catalogued, conserved and partially digitised as part of the Virtual Trinity Library project. A fundraising campaign by the TWG’s Archive Centenary Committee, generously supported by the Trinity Association and Trust, the TDA, the Provost’s Fund, the Beverston Trust, Arthur Cox and many other donors and friends has made this work possible.

www.trinitywomengraduates.ie

https://www.tcd.ie/library/exhibitions/trinity-women/