Trinity and the Steamboat Ladies by Susan Parkes, BA (1958), MLitt, MA , FTCD F ollowing the changing of rules at Trinity in January 1904, a request came from women who had attended one of the women‘s colleges at Oxford and Cambridge to apply for a Dublin degree under the old arrangement known as ad eundem gradum. Under this old privilege, graduates of the three ancient universities could sit their degree examinations at one of the universities and take out their degree from one of the others. The Oxbridge women’s colleges, though allowed to offer degree examinations, were still unable to award university degrees. In June 1904 a student from Belfast, who recently had attended Girton College, Cambridge, wrote to the Provost requesting permission to be allowed under the old ad eum gradum privilege to take out a Dublin BA degree. Dr Antony Traill, the new Provost, Board and Senate agreed that such a privilege could be granted to qualified Oxbridge women for a limited period of three years from 1904-07, after which Trinity’s first women students would be graduating. Trinity may not have expected so many Oxbridge applicants, but indeed in the three year period over 700 women travelled to Dublin to graduate. The majority of them were employed in full-time teaching posts so had to ask for leave of absence to travel. They usually came for one night only by the Holyhead ‘mail boat’, hence the nickname the Steamboat Ladies . They filled the commencements in the Exam Hall where to date no women had been awarded degrees. They were looked after by the Lady Registrar, Miss Lucy Gwynn, and were invited by the Chancellor of the University and the Provost to a formal lunch in the Dining Hall where an official large commencements photograph was taken on the Dining Hall steps. The Steamboat Ladies who came to Dublin were both middle-aged and young, some having only just completed their degree exams. The importance of having a university degree and of being able to wear a gown and hood gave extra status in the women’s education profession. Among those who came were some eminent school principals and headteachers such as Emily Penrose , later principal of Somerville College, Oxford, Lilian Faithful , principal of Cheltenham Ladies’ College and Sara Burstall , headmistress of Manchester High School for Girls. At the June 1904 commencements there were three Irish women who had been to Newham College, Cambridge – Edith Anne Stoney , a distinguished scientist, Edith Badham who became headmistress of St Margaret’s Hall School, Dublin, and Leota Bennett from Belfast who became a teacher training college lecturer. The women usually travelled together to Dublin as a group for company and they signed entry together in the register in the Lady Registrar’s office. The commencement fee was £10 3s for BA and £9 16s 6d for MA. Candidates of more than three years standing could apply to take both a MA and a BA on the same day, and an additional £10 was charged for a MA Testimonial. The women’s names were included in the commencements list in the Trinity Calendars and also in the Oxbridge Colleges student review journals. The acquisition of a formal degree was a marked asset for women in professional life, particularly when faced with competition for teaching posts with graduates from other universities such as London, Aberdeen and Durham that awarded degrees to women. Although the awarding of ad eundem degrees to Oxbridge women only lasted three years, its influence was of much greater importance. It brought a large number of women graduates to campus and showed the way in which university educated women would become creators and leaders of girls’ high schools and university
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