At Cambridge on Wednesday the demand of women to be
received as full members of the University was rejected by a majority of 192. The figures were non-plata 904, placet 712. Thus Cambridge has for the present, at all events, refused to follow the lead of Oxford. The issue had been in considerable doubt. The supporters of the women's demand had, on the whole, organized themselves more carefully than their opponents, and those who followed the "Battle of the Fly Sheets" might have gathered from the lists of names that the women would win the day. Whether or not this impression was justified as regards the resident members of the Senate the decision in a controversy of this kind always depends ultimately upon the number of non-resident members of the Senate who can be persuaded to go to Cambridge to vote. The disposition of the "backwoodsmen," as they are often called, is conservative. Yet it is to be noted that the Conservative vote was smaller than it has ever been. In 1897, for example, when women were demanding not full membership but only a grant of degrees, there were 1,713 votes against them and only 662 in their favour.
Previous page
