Feminist and radical histories at Newnham

Sylvia Plath

That Sylvia Plath studied at Newnham is a fact about the College’s history imparted on undergraduate students early on. Her autobiographic novel 'The Bell Jar' has inspired generations of feminists, both at her college and elsewhere. Together with her poetry, it has become an important reservoir of comfort and consolation for young women struggling with the world and their place in it. It is because of this heritage that we include Plath here. 

Akua Asabea Ayisi

Akua Asabea Ayisi was a Newnham student who matriculated in 1959 and studied History. Before coming to Cambridge, she was deeply involved in the movement for decolonisation in Ghana.

The Campaign for Women’s Education

In a way, the entirety of Newnham College can be thought of as a project of feminist activism. It simultaneously provided, and powerfully advocated for, women’s education. 

Virginia Woolf

Virginia Woolf is an important and generative figure in feminist thought and activism. While she never studied at Newnham, she had significant ties to our college.

Amy Levy and the New Woman

The phrase ‘New Woman’, likely coined by the feminist writer Sarah Grand at the end of the 19th century, refers to a moderate, middle-class feminist.

Women’s Suffrage

Many of the first ever women to study at Newnham College worked tirelessly for women's right to vote in Britain.

Working Women’s Summer Schools (1922-1950)

A two-page article in the Roll Letter of January 1921 by Newnham member Edith Neville started Newnham’s working women’s summer schools. Neville called on members and alumnae of the college to support the Workers Educational Association and Colleges for Working Women set up in London. Neville envisioned the creation of a similar college in Cambridge.

Women’s Liberation

From the late 1960s onward, and throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Newnham students were involved in the women’s liberation movement, the uptick in activism for gender justice, sometimes called ‘second wave feminism.’

Settlement Movement

From 1887 onwards, Newnham’s university settlement at Nelson Square in Southwark served as a community centre for London’s poor and provided an opportunity for members of Newnham College to learn about social reality in ways otherwise unavailable to them. 

Clara Rackham and Women in Local Government

From 1894, women who owned property could vote in local elections, become administrators (‘Poor Law Guardians’) of workhouses for the poor, and act on school boards. In 1904, Clara Rackham was elected as a Poor Law Guardian. From 1907, women could be elected onto borough and county councils and as mayor. In 1919, Clara Rackham became a Cambridge Borough Councillor for Labour. From 1919, women could be magistrates in court. The pattern is familiar by now: Rackham became a magistrate in 1920.

Debating Societies

Barred from membership of the Cambridge Union until 1963, women students created vibrant debating societies within their colleges.

Princess Aida Desta

Princess Aida Desta, the granddaughter of the emperor of Ethiopia Haille Selasie, was a student at Newnham between 1945-1948.

Student Magazines

Newnham’s student produced magazines provide a fascinating peek into the everyday life of college, where serious political debate stands alongside gossip. These magazines reveal the way that daily college life was always negotiating, and inflected with, the political.

Diane Abbott

Diane Abbott, the long-serving Labour MP for North Hackney and Stoke Newington, has fought against racism, for transparency and for social justice in the House of Commons since 1987.