Beth Evans

I first began to notice gender disparities in education as an undergraduate student at King’s College, London. Dividing my time between French and philosophy, I encountered notable differences between the two departments in terms of gender. Within the student body, French is heavily female-dominated. Philosophy, in contrast, is so heavily male-dominated that some female students proudly boasted that they have never read a work of philosophy by a woman. Although I studied few female philosophers, the French department afforded the opportunity to take women’s writing and feminist theory classes. Aided by the perspectives I gained in these courses, I became aware that there was no active women’s campaign or women’s officer at King’s. After setting up a feminist discussion group, I attended the national conference of the National Union of Students’ Women’s Campaign as the college’s delegate.

Through my growing involvement with these efforts, I learned that while opportunities for female students have increased dramatically since the early twentieth century, glaring inequalities still face women and girls educated in the United Kingdom. The National Office for Statistics shows that girls consistently achieve better results than boys at primary and secondary school levels (between the ages of five and sixteen) and in higher education (between the ages of sixteen and eighteen). But the media and politicians most often respond to this data with concern for boys’ education rather than celebration of girls’ achievements. At advanced educational levels, while more female than male students are entering undergraduate courses at further education institutions and universities, more men (11.5 percent) than women (10.7 percent) are obtaining first-class degrees (undergraduate degrees with high honors) (Office for National Statistics 2007). The question, then, is why women begin to lag behind men in achievement at the further education level.

London Student Feminists, a network of women’s groups, feminist groups, and politically minded individuals from across the University of London, formed in 2009 to answer this question and address issues of gender inequality that affect students today. From its inception, the aim of London Student Feminists was to engage others and to foster links between already active student groups. We aimed to build a network that would enable us to share information, cosponsor events, improve communication, and create a unified response to the problems we face.

Cultural Barriers to Women’s Education

At the further education level and beyond, women in the United Kingdom face very real barriers rooted in the cultural milieu. At the University of Oxford, where I am currently enrolled in an MA program, female students are less likely to be offered undergraduate admission than male students with similar backgrounds (Shepherd 2009). Moreover, less than 10 percent of professors at Oxford are women (Henderson 2009).

One might speculate that the cultures of institutions like Oxford and Cambridge may favor male students. Commenting on the lower rates at which women obtain first-class degrees at Oxford, one recent study suggests the possibility “that the Oxford study environment or the examination system, or both[,] are more conducive to male achievements”—that is, that Oxford is unwelcoming to women (Zimdars 2007). These unfriendly cultures may be the legacy of institutions that only very recently opened their doors to women. The University of Oxford first admitted women in 1920, and Cambridge began to grant degrees to women in 1948. The Oxford Union debating society admitted female members only after student Judith Okely’s campaign in the early 1960s.

The cultural challenges at Oxford and Cambridge reflect more general issues affecting all women students in the United Kingdom. For example, some politicians seem less than welcoming of the progress made by female students. David Willetts, Conservative member of parliament and shadow secretary of state for universities and skills, commented last year on the fact that more women than men are now obtaining degrees:

Of course the world is changing, and it’s fantastic[,] it is. But the fact is that even if men want to be the breadwinner, they are no longer being given the opportunity of being the breadwinner. They are no longer given the opportunity to bring home the bacon, and the evidence is that that is bad for families. (Chapman 2008)

Thus rather than praising progress made by women in education, some British politicians are still interpreting women’s progress as detrimental to men and family life. This opinion is particularly frightening when voiced by someone as prominent as Willetts. Considering the likelihood that the Conservative Party will gain majority control of the government at the forthcoming general election, Willetts is likely to take his place as minister for universities and skills by the summer of 2010.

The attitudes of some educators are similarly limiting of women’s opportunities. Terence Healey, vice-chancellor of the University of Buckingham, last year encouraged fellow (male) educators to see their female students as a “perk” of the job, which they “should admire daily.” Healey advocated a “look but don’t touch” policy for staff, just “as in Stringfellows” (a London lap-dancing club) (Reisz 2009).

The influence of profit-making companies on campus (and the related attitudes of some students) have also had negative effects on the campus environment. British universities have seen the rise of events such as the Miss University of London beauty pageant, a corporate enterprise that uses the names of University of London colleges and institutions without official sanction. The company employs students to scout their lectures for female entrants and heavily promotes events on campus.

Mobilizing Students for Cultural Change

In opposition to the Miss University of London pageant, University of London students mobilized against the objectification of women in 2008. Students from the university’s approximately thirty colleges and institutes collaborated together under the campaign “Miss-Ogynist University of London” (Miss-Ogynist University of London n.d.). The group held very visible protests and attracted the attention of international media. This activism united women and men from across the University of London and led to the formation of the London Student Feminists network (London Student Feminists n.d.).     

Using tools like Facebook and an active blog, the London Student Feminists have reached out to other feminists and activists and held workshops at conferences such as that of the National Union of Students’ Women’s Campaign. The network has also held speaker events, rallies, and an all-day conference in summer 2009. We are now working to protest circumstances like the Miss University of London pageant that negatively affect women students. For example, universities in the United Kingdom are witnessing an increase in the promotion of student nights designed to render participants as drunk as possible. These events have names like “Carnage,” and they are organized by profit-seeking companies rather than by student unions (Neill 2008). Women’s safety on campus is thus a pressing issue. Drink-spiking remains a concern: in 2003, 6,650 instances of spiked drinks were reported in the United Kingdom at large, with 88 percent of victims being female (Ceredigion County Council n.d.). But the British media tend to blame the victims of such crimes in articles like “Date-rape drug? No dear, you just had too much to drink” (Martin 2009). Students echo these opinions, and one survey conducted by the newspaper London Student found that one in three British students believe that a woman is responsible for being raped if she is drunk (Lay 2009). Clearly, these attitudes must change for women’s safety to be taken seriously.

Challenges to women’s safety on campus are closely related to broader challenges facing women in the United Kingdom. Data suggest that the United Kingdom has the lowest rape conviction rate in Europe, averaging 5.29 percent (Fawcett Society 2004). Services for rape survivors remain massively underfunded. The United Nations’ Committee for the Elimination of Discrimination against Women has criticized the British government for failing to provide sufficient, sustained funding for rape crisis centers, which provide invaluable support for survivors of rape and sexual violence. The number of these centers in the United Kingdom has almost halved from sixty-eight in 1984 to thirty-eight today (Corry 2008). Yet the government still resists allocating money to maintain them. London has only one rape crisis center for its 3.9 million women, and the center is under constant threat of closure due to lack of sustained funding.

London Student Feminists recently participated in a campaign to push local government to address the lack of resources for rape and sexual assault survivors. We lobbied local politicians and used direct action to draw media attention to the issue. During a Greater London Assembly Meeting, London Student Feminists set off rape alarms inside City Hall and filmed a subsequent confrontation with London Mayor Boris Johnson which was then aired on television and in the national press. We hope that these actions contributed in some way to the mayor’s subsequent promise to fund another London-based rape crisis center (Mulholland 2009).

Despite the diverse network of institutions that comprise the University of London, and their disparate locations across a vast city, the university’s students have united over common feminist causes. Our individual words form a louder voice protesting issues of inequality that directly affect us all.

References

Ceredigion County Council. What is drink spiking? www.ceredigion.gov.uk/index.cfm?articleid=11927

Chapman, J. 2008. Bridget Jones generation “to blame for breakdown of the family.” Daily Mail, September 29. www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1063792/Bridget-Jones-generation-blame-breakdown-family.html.

Corry, D. 2008. UN backs Rape Crisis. New Statesman, August 5. www.newstatesman.com/uk-politics/2008/08/rape-crisis-centres-women

Fawcett Society. 2004. Regional rape conviction rates. www.fawcettsociety.org.uk/index.asp?PageID=244

Henderson, N. 2009. Report shows Oxford is still a man’s world. Cherwell, May 7. www.cherwell.org/content/8732.

Lay, K. 2009. Asking for it. London Student, February 16. www.london-student.net/2009/02/16/asking-for-it/

London Student Feminists. n.d. londonstudentfeminists.blogspot.com.

Martin, D. 2009. Date-rape drug? No dear, you just had too much to drink. Daily Mail, October 27. www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1223134/Young-women-fear-drink-spiked-just-alcohol.html

Miss-Ogynist University of London. n.d. www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=31412009878.

Mulholland, H. 2009. YouTube video shows roadside ambush on Mayor over lack of funding for rape crisis centres in London. Guardian, July 21. www.guardian.co.uk/global/2009/jul/21/campaigners-johnson-rape

Neill, H. 2008. Student drinking nights criticised. BBC News, April 1. news.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/hi/health/newsid_7324000/7324455.stm

Office for National Statistics. 2007. Education: Girls continue to outperform boys. www.statistics.gov.uk/CCI/nugget.asp?ID=1892.

Reisz, M. 2009. The seven deadly sins of the academy. Times Higher Education, September 17. www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=408135&c=2

Shepherd, J. 2009. Oxford University admissions favour men, study finds. Guardian, August 19. www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/aug/19/oxford-university-men-places-women.

Zimdars, A. 2007. Challenges to meritocracy? A study of the social mechanisms in student selection and attainment at the University of Oxford. DPhil. thesis, Oxford University, UK. ora.ouls.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:0e9cf555-a921-4134-baf4-ce7114795f36.