Cover of book of Emily Davies' collected letters
- This article is about the women's education advocate. For the pottery decorator, whose married name was Emily Grace
Davies, see Grace Barnsley
Sarah Emily Davies (22 April 1830 – 13 July 1921) was an English
feminist, suffragist and a pioneering campaigner for
women's rights to university access. She was born in
Southampton, England to an evangelical
clergyman and a teacher in 1830, although she spent most of her youth in Gateshead.
In 1862, after the death of her father, Davies moved to London, where she edited a feminist publication, The Englishwoman's Journal, and became
friends with women's rights advocates Barbara Bodichon, Elizabeth Garrett Anderson and her younger sister Millicent Fawcett. Davies became a founder member of a women's discussion group, the Kensington Society.
Davies began campaigning for a woman's right to education. She was active on the London
School Board and in the Schools Inquiry Commission and was instrumental in obtaining the admission of girls to official
secondary school examinations.
She then advocated for the admission of women to the Universities of London,
Oxford and Cambridge. Like all
universities at this time, these were exclusively male domains.
She also became involved in the Suffrage movement, which centred on a woman's right to vote.
She was involved in organizing for John Stuart Mill's 1866 petition to the British Parliament) which was the
first to ask for women's suffrage. That same year, she also wrote the book The Higher Education of Women.
In 1869, Davies led the founding of Britain's first
women's college, Girton College at Hitchin,
Hertfordshire. In 1873, the institution moved to
Cambridge, Cambridgeshire. From 1873 to
1875, Davies served as mistress of the college, where she then served as Secretary until
1904. The college did not become part of Cambridge University and begin granting full degrees until
1940.
Davies also continued her suffrage work. In 1906, she headed a delegation to Parliament. She was
known for opposing the militant and violent methods used by the Suffragette part of the women's suffrage movement, led by the
Pankhursts.
In 1910, Davies published Thoughts on Some Questions Relating to Women. She died in
1921.
See also
History of feminism
External links and references
Further reading
- Sarah Emily Davies,The Higher Education of Women [1866], Adamant Media Corporation (2006), ISBN
0543982920
- Daphne Bennett - Emily Davies and the Liberation of Women (André Deutsch, 1990) ISBN 0-233-98494-1
- Ann B. Murphy and Deirdre Raftery (eds) - Emily Davies: Collected Letters, 1861-1875 (University of Virginia Press, 2003) ISBN
0-8139-2232-1
- Barbara Nightingale Stephen - Emily Davies and Girton College (Hyperion, 1976) ISBN 0-88355-282-5
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