An inspirational story of the first female graduates, to whom today's generation of women owe an awful lot. The personal histories including are fascinating. I do feel the book should go up to 1948 when Cambridge finally allowed women degrees rather than ending in 1939.

Sending on Bookring:

LyzzyBee
CaterinaAnna
Heaven_Ali
Katisha50

Kindly passed to me by Meg at the meetup today. Will read and pass on as soon as I can...

The inspirational story of the women who, from the late nineteenth century through to the inter-war years, paved the way for all of us British female graduates. From undergraduettes who were thought to be damaging their chances of child-rearing, through chaperones, women only dances and thickets of rules and regulations, Robinson draws out personal histories through letters and diaries and shapes her material well into themes such as applying for University, friendships etc. She doesn't ignore the darker side of life but this is essentially a life-affirming and positive read, very well done and filling a gap that hadn't previously been looked at, as far as I know.

Will pass to Catherine at the BC Birmingham Christmas Meal next week. Thanks for the chance to read this!

Will pass to CaterinaAnna at the BC Birmingham Christmas meal tomorrow!

My turn! Hooray!

Interesting and inspiring, yes, but I'm afraid I also found it rather annoying. I appreciate that the thematic structure was appropriate to such anecdotal material, but I think that within each chapter a more chronolgical approach would have given a stronger focus to the advances made by successive generations. It was disconcerting to shuttle backwards and forwards between the 1880s the 1930s and back to 1904 in the space of a few paragraphs. The other irritation factor was repeated explanations - there was no need to tell me every time the name came up that the Society of Home Students mutated into St Anne's or what 'Little Go' is.
The individual stories were what brought the history to life. They were sympathetically told and I would have liked to have fuller accounts of the experiences of some of the author's correspondents. In some respects they were strong, in others naive and in others just like those of us who have followed the path they cut. So, in spite of my criticisms, I did enjoy this book overall so thank you to Megmac and LyzzyBee for sharing. Will keep ready to pass onto Heaven-Ali next time I see her - likely to be sooner than initially expected due to the change of plans for Christmas.

Passed to me today : ) thanks Catherine, am looking forward to it.

I thought this was a really fascinating book, and very readable. Women today have much to be grateful for, to the women whose stories Jane Robinson recounts. They faced almost unbelievable prejudice and so many women desperate to further themselves and learn as much as possible were destined never to complete their courses, due to family constraints or the pressures they placed upon themselves. I really enjoyed reading about the life of women's colleges, the cocoa parties and the draconian rules and the way rebellious girls found to get round them. The women themselves speak to us through the extracts from letters and diaries and give a real flavour of what life away from home was like for many of these educational pioneers.

Will get this to Gill when I can.

passing to Katisha50 later this evening.

Going to Gill next.

Thanks for this, Ali, and sorry not to have done an immediate JE. Will get to this as soon as I can, but my reading has slowed down somewhat in recent weeks.

Really loved this book. The personal stories were an inspiration. Learned lots - for instance. did not realise that it was as recently as 1948 that women were first allowed to graduate from Cam.

Will return to you on Wednesday, Ali.

An unexpected but welcome extra to the books I picked up at the Birmingham Bookcrossing Christmas meal :-))

I found this book quite inspiring as the women who first attained university educations had to put up with a lot of hardship, and fight, for the privilege that many of us now take for granted. It makes me realise that we should make the most of the opportunities we have and ensure that we do what we can to help others to realise their potential.
At the end of the nineteenth century, when the female brain was considered five ounces lighter than the male brain, five women bravely enrolled at university for the first time in Britain. From wildly different backgrounds, and with only a passion for learning in common, they faced dismissal as mere 'bonnets', and wild rioting when a vote was taken to offer these 'undergraduettes' a recognised degree. But from their teachers and parents they enjoyed unimaginable kindness. In one case a teacher pretended her student had gained a scholarship and paid for her education!

Sending as a RABACK to another bookcrosser who kindly sent me some books from my wishlist

Arrived today, what a lovely surprise! Thank you Katweeble, really appreciate it. Sounds an interesting book, I'm looking forward to reading it.

Enjoyed this book. With all the hurdles and rules these women had to put up with it's amazing any of them got through university at all. Sad that the events described in the book really weren't that many years ago. Us female graduates certainly have much to be thankful for and it makes you think more about the pitiful state of female education still found in many parts of the world today.
Agree with Caterinaanna that sometimes a more structured chronology would have helped the book, but the author certainly seems to have done her research, she must have spent a lot of time sifting through archives.
Thank you to Katweeble for sending me this book, can't believe it's been on the shelf so long. Now available for anyone who would like it.