Vivie Warren at Cambridge
When Mrs. Warren’s Profession’s Vivie Warren begins her studies at Newnham College at Cambridge University, women were only on Cambridge’s campus for about 20 years. Lectures for Ladies began in 1870; travel to Cambridge was not easy, however, and many women who wanted to attend would need a place to reside. To accommodate these intrepid students, Henry Sidgewick rented a house on his own credit where five women could stay. With that, Newnham was born in 1871.
Newnham expanded rapidly, adding additional residence halls, administrative buildings, and a laboratory, as female students were not allowed to access Cambridge’s main laboratories.
Scientific facilities weren’t the only academic outlets out of reach. Despite being allowed to sit in many lectures — with the exception of subjects like biology that were deemed unsuitable for mixed company — women did not have university-wide permission to sit for exams until 1881. Even then, these exams were largely symbolic; women were not granted full degrees until after World War II.
The degree issue was deeply divisive. Granting women degrees could also grant them voting rights and other privileges at the University. Male students and faculty also worried that admitting women to degrees would force lecturers to adapt their teaching to accommodate female minds. When the issue was brought to a vote in 1897, three years after Vivie would have graduated, the entirely male constituency voted against granting women degrees by a ratio of nearly 2:1.
Protests before the vote and celebrations after the result were raucous. Male students displayed placards with slogans like “Frustrate the Feminine Fanatics!,” “Satisfied Angels Want to Supersede Beaten Apollos!”and “Varsity for Men and Men for the Varsity!” Fireworks were set off, horns were blown, and at least two female effigies were hung, with one described as:
“a woman arrayed in blue bloomers and pink bodice, sitting astride a bicycle…run out from an upper window and received with cheers and groans.”
After the result was read, the effigy was decapitated.
A similar effort in 1921 was met with the same result; thousands of dollars of damage was done to Newnham in the aftermath, including the battering of the bronze gates erected as memorial to Anne Jemima Clough, Newnham’s first principal.
Beyond being barred from holding a degree, women at Cambridge also faced a strict code of conduct. Women could not entertain men in their rooms, and faced a strict dress code when playing sports. According to a first-hand account from C. Kenyon, a Newnham student in the years just after Vivie would have graduated:
the authorities of Newnham and Girton liked us to be as unobtrusive as possible…We were always asked to wear gloves in town (and of course hats!); we must not ride a bicycle in the main streets, nor take a boat out on the river in the daytime unless accompanied by a chaperon [sic] who must be either a married woman or one of the college dons.
Despite these restrictions, however, Kenyon claims most women were not bothered by the restrictions, recognizing them as consistent with other Victorian attitudes. Vivie certainly does not complain in Shaw’s play. With her confidence, dedication, and laser focus tested, Vivie seems to come out of the contentious Cambridge environment with spine and spirit fully intact.
Join us at Lantern Theater Company for Mrs. Warren’s Profession. Update: The show has been extended through October 16, 2016; visit our website for tickets and information.
