Representation of the People Act (1918) women over 30 gained
the parliamentary vote, and by a special Act passed in Nov. they
were made eligible as members of Parliament, though the only
woman elected at the general election of that year, Countess
Markiewicz, refused, with the other Sinn Feiners, to take her
seat. The Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act (Dec. 1919) gave
women the right to hold practically every other public or pro-
fessional position pertaining to civil life with the exception of
membership of the House of Lords. Even this exception was
subsequently removed: on March 2 1922 the Committee on Privi-
kges of the House of Lords favourably passed upon a petition
by Lady Rhondda holding that she and the 24 other peeresses in
their own right were entitled to seats in the House of Lords.
As an immediate result of the Act women could be admitted to the degrees of any university, whatever the terms of its previous charter. The university of Oxford rose to the height of its oppor- tunity; Cambridge, up to the close of 1921, still lagged behind. In the general election of Dec. 1918 women, who had qualified by residence and examination for degrees not yet conferred upon them, exercised the university franchise by reason of that qualifi- cation. The absurdity of such a position appealed to the more logical university: In Feb. 1920 Prof. Geldart introduced a statute into Congregation at Oxford, proposing to admit women to full membership of the university. Two amendments were moved on March 9, one to exclude women from university boards, the other from examinerships, but both were' rejected by large majorities. On May n the statute was carried without alteration, and three subsidiary statutes, admitting women to all university offices, passed unopposed. Since Oct. 7 1920 the women stu- dents of Oxford have enjoyed the same advantages, and been subjected to the same university discipline, as the men. They even wear in slightly modified form the same academic dress at lectures and all university ceremonies. Moreover the gift was retrospective; every woman who had passed the examinations for the degree course and resided not less than 9 terms (three years) in Oxford as a member of a recognized Society of Women Students (such societies being the four women's colleges, or the Society of Oxford Home Students) became eligible for a degree, and on Oct. 14 the degree of B.A. was actually conferred upon a large number of qualified women, the principals of the various colleges and halls and the principal of the Oxford Home Students receiving the hon. degree of M.A. On March u 1921 the hon. degree of D.C.L. was conferred on Queen Mary, on the occasion of a visit to Oxford in support of the appeal of the Oxford women's colleges for funds to meet the anticipated increase in the number of students anxious to matriculate at a university which offered them full privileges of membership. During the academic year 1920-1 the total number of degrees conferred upon women at Oxford was: B.A. 621; M.A. 345; B.Litt. 9; B.Sc. 3; B.C.L. i; B.Mus. 2; D.Mus. i; D.C.L. i.
At Cambridge the position up to the summer of 1921 remained uncertain and, from the women's point of view, unsatisfactory. On Dec. 8 1920 a proposal to admit women to degrees was de- cisively rejected by the Senate, the figures being 712 for and 904 against. An alternative scheme to set up a separate university for women 'at Cambridge, conducting its own examinations and conferring its own degrees, met with no favour and was strongly opposed by the women concerned. When it came before the Senate (Feb. 12 1921) it was rejected by 146 votes to 50. A " compromise " scheme, giving membership of the university and full degrees and making women undergraduates eligible for professorships, lectureships, university boards and syndicates but not for the Senate, was again rejected on Oct. 20 when it was defeated by 908 Votes to 694. An alternative scheme for con- ferring by diploma " titular" degrees on women, carrying with them no university membership, was passed by 1,012 votes to 370. This alternative, however, was unacceptable to the women.
Amongst the learned and academic distinctions won by women during the decade may be noted the presidency of the botanical section of the British Association held by Ethel Sargent (d. 1918) in 1913 and by E. R. Saunders in 1920. In Dec. 1920 Eugenie (Mrs; Arthur) Strong was appointed Rhind lecturer in archae-
ology and the first woman fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. In 1918 the Founder's Gold Medal of the Royal Geographical Society was bestowed upon Gertrude Margaret Lowthian Bell.
By Section 2 of the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act women were permitted to become solicitors. Three years earlier (Jan. 1917) a proposal to admit women to the bar had been defeated at its annual general meeting by a large majority, though in Feb. 1917 a bill to permit them to qualify as solicitors obtained a second reading in the House of Lords. On Jan. i 1920 Mrs. Gwyneth Marjory Thomson (Bebb), who died at the 1 early age of 31, was admitted at Lincoln's Inn as the first woman student for the English bar. She had previously (1913) tested the legality of a woman practising as a solici- tor by bringing (with others) a case against the Law Society. On May 7 1920 Miss Tata, a Parsi, was admitted, also at Lin- coln's Inn, as a student preparing for the Indian bar. A few women presented themselves for the law examinations at the universities and passed with distinction, Mrs. Thomson ob- taining a ist class at Oxford, and Miss L. F. Nettlefold at Cam- bridge, and in June 1921 Miss K. Snell of Girton College was placed above No. i in Class I. of Part II. of the law tripos at Cambridge. In March 1921 five women passed the intermediate examination for the bar and on May 26 Olive Catherine Chap- man passed the final examination.
Seven women (the Marchionesses of Crewe and of London- derry, Mrs. Humphry Ward, Mrs. Lloyd George, Miss Elizabeth Haldane, Mrs. Sidney Webb and Miss Gertrude Tuckwell) were appointed justices of the peace on Jan. i 1920. On Jan. 9 Mrs. Ada Summers, mayor of Stalybridge, took her seat as first woman chairman of the bench. In March of that year 24 women were appointed for the county of Lancaster, and in July a large num- ber were appointed for the county of London; appointments were subsequently made throughout the United Kingdom.
On Aug. 6 iQ2o women jurors were for the first time em- panelled, at Bristol. In Jan. 1921 women jurors were first summoned to the Central Criminal Court, London, and were also first called as " special jurors " in the Probate and Divorce Court. The first case which they had to try involved details of an unpleasant character, and some controversy subsequently arose as to the suitability of mixed juries in divorce and other cases. It was, however, generally held that the discretion left to the judge to make an order exempting women from service in cases of a certain kind was sufficient safeguard, and a bill, introduced into the House of Commons by Mr. G. Terrell on April 15 to amend the Sex Disqualification Act by providing that no women should be compelled to serve on a jury, failed to secure support, only 19 members being present when he introduced it.
Shortage of candidates for the medical profession during the World War encouraged a very large number of women students to present themselves. War conditions led to the admission of women students to several of the London general hospitals; before the war they were restricted to the Royal Free Hospital and the School of Medicine attached to it, or to the few hospitals for women, staffed by women. A notable advance was also made in placing the Endell Street (London) military hospital, opened Feb. 1915 by the R.A.M.C., under Dr. Louise Garrett Anderson and Dr. Flora Murray, and by the employment of other women surgeons and physicians under the R.A.M.C. in Malta, Salonika and elsewhere.
Progress in the Civil Service was rapid during the war, when women, as temporary civil servants, held many responsible posts, and were paid on a higher scale than had previously ob- tained. On May 19 1920 the House of Commons passed a resolu- tion declaring that women employed in the service of the State should have equal opportunities and equal pay with men engaged on the same work. But the power to reserve to men certain de- partments of the service, given to the Treasury by Order in Council, was widely exercised, and the progress made fell short of the desires and expectations of the women affected (see WOMEN'S EMPLOYMENT). On Aug. 5 1921 a debate on the subject took place in the House of Commons on a resolution moved by a private member. A Government amendment to it was agreed to,
