Her Oxford

6. Emerging from Adolescence [Includes Image Plates]

74 6 Emerging from Adolescence T he 1890s were years of transition and growth for the Oxford women’s colleges, as they attempted to become more autonomous. Somerville appointed a new principal; the Oxford Home-Students gained their first principal; St. Hilda’s was established as the fifth women’s society in Oxford; the halls began expansion programs; some restrictions on women students were loosened; and the question of degrees for women was broached. Early in the decade (1893), the Hebdomadal Council even accorded women a small degree of recognition by offering to appoint one of its members to sit on the AEW Committee as a representative of the university. In the same year, the vice-chancellor turned over a suite of rooms in the Clarendon Building to the AEW for its use.1 No matter that the rooms were on the top floor (practically the attic), for they were in a university building where the registrar himself had an office. Many hailed these small gains as true progress. Somerville’s New Principal When Madeleine Shaw Lefevre resigned as principal of Somerville in 1889, the council elected Agnes Maitland to succeed her, a woman well suited to lead Somerville from its Victorian origins as a glorified boarding house to an institution with collegiate aspirations. As Vera Brittain has remarked: “The capable administrator had arrived to take the place of the elegant embodiment of decorous society; the lady was already giving way to the woman.”2 Agnes Maitland, a native of Liverpool, had worked for most of her adult life. Her interest in improving the teaching of domestic economy led to her appointment as inspector of classes on this subject in elementary schools in the North. She campaigned for better hygiene instruction in schools, served as secretary of the Egypt Exploration Fund, and wrote stories and cookbooks. She was passionate about education for women and preferred to concentrate on its practical benefits. Although she valued pure scholarship, it could never fully engage her heart. Her administrative skills, grasp of finance, energy, and optimism impressed all who knew her, Emerging from Adolescence 75 and she was unabashedly enthusiastic about Somerville. A much-quoted description of her is that she wanted Somerville “to inherit the earth.” Developing a resident tutorial staff was one of her priorities, for she knew Somerville could never become a college worthy of respect in Oxford without one. Not surprisingly, this move toward autonomy occasioned some friction with the AEW, which from the first had tried to maintain control over all aspects of women’s education in Oxford, including the appointment of tutors to be shared among all the women students. (As noted earlier, Somerville had already appointed a few in-house tutors; however, their duties were more administrative than academic, and their ambiguous status hadn’t caused the AEW much concern.) The desire for more control over the educational direction of students didn’t begin with Agnes Maitland . Before she retired in 1889, Miss Shaw Lefevre, writing to her successor , expressed an emerging independent attitude: I always tried to keep these [arrangements for private tuition] as much as possible in my own hands. I certainly think that the students should look to their Hall for guidance and that the Association should be regarded as an august and independent body not lightly to be applied to.3 Bertha Johnson, as secretary of the AEW, vigorously resisted this trend, even though her job was becoming burdensome as the population of the halls increased. Not only was she a traditionalist who instinctively opposed any break with the past, but also she passionately believed in the principles behind the formation of the AEW: “co-operation combined with freedom, economy, variety (the best choice of teachers being available by this communal system) and also a choice as to the residential system.”4 Bertha Johnson’s Resignation Throughout 1893, relations between Somerville and the AEW remained tense, and feelings often ran high. (The other women’s societies weren’t as prominent as Somerville in this dispute, but they too desired more independence .) The breaking point came in 1894 when the Somerville Council clearly stated that it intended to appoint its own resident tutors in classics and modern history and not rely on the AEW to direct this instruction. Bertha Johnson was furious that Somerville would disregard the rules of the AEW and resigned as secretary. Annie Rogers, who had no objections to the transfer of loyalties from the AEW to the halls, assumed the...