NEWNHAM COLLEGE, 1920—GENERAL VIEW.
The Grace finally proposed by the second Syndicate appointed for the purpose was as follows:
"The University shall have power to grant by Diploma, Titles of Degrees in Arts, Law, Science, Letters, and Music to women who, either before or after the confirmation of this Statute, have fulfilled the conditions which shall be required of them for this purpose by the Ordinances of the University, and also shall have power to grant by diploma the same titles honoris causa to women who have not fulfilled the ordinary conditions, but have been recommended for such Titles by the Council of the Senate: provided always that a title granted under this section shall not involve membership of the University."
It was seen by many opponents and by some supporters that this Grace, if passed, would not have been a final settlement. But it would have removed an undoubted grievance. And in course of time, when the world had become accustomed to women vigorously and successfully engaged in the administration of colonial and provincial universities, full membership might have come in later without much controversy. The most striking speeches on the women's side were made by the late master of Trinity (Dr. Butler), Professor Maitland, Mr. (afterwards Professor) Bateson, and Professor Sidgwick. The speeches on the other side generally insisted, without much relevance, on the limitations of the female mind and the female physique, the impossibility of women's desire for University life and learning existing apart from a wish to copy and rival the other sex, and the like.[12] What the mind of Newnham, at its best, thought on the matter is ably expressed in a flysheet written by our Secretary, Miss Marion Kennedy, on the eve of the voting. I quote the later portion: "One appeal I should like to make to those whom we still regard as our friends, though for the moment they are opposed to us. It is that they may not be led to think that a separate University for women can be the true solution of the difficulty.
"Can we imagine what the position of such an institution would really be? If it were merely a body for conferring degrees without holding examinations, its degrees must be given alike on the examinations of Cambridge, Oxford, and Durham; all the other Universities having opened their degrees. For the two latter I cannot judge, but I venture to ask any Cambridge man if he would care to bear a title which was given indiscriminately on the examination of his own University and on those of Oxford and Durham.[13]... If, on the other hand, a Women's University held its own examinations, its standard could not possibly command the same respect as those of the older universities, nor could it give the inspiration which comes only of ancient tradition. As the Master of Trinity so well put it in his speech in the Senate House, generation after generation must be trained before any such comparison could be possible, and I fear the time must be measured not only by generations but by centuries. I think there is no doubt that if an attempt was made to found a Women's University, disappointment would be in store for any who would expect it to lay down a separate course or courses of study adapted to the supposed requirements of women. It would on the contrary be driven to follow the lines of the old University course even more closely than women are now required to do, as the only chance of giving its degrees any practical value. This leads to another point on which I think that a few of our opponents have not treated us quite fairly. It has been said that women wish to take the Cambridge course merely because they aim at imitating men. Surely this assumption is hardly justified by the facts. May it not be believed that women honestly seek to share what long experience has decided to be the best training for the mind?
"It seems to me we are far more likely to allow fair play to whatever mental differences exist between men and women by giving them impartially the best training and affording them every opportunity to develop their separate powers afterwards, than if we falsify the result through a diversity of training which must tend to obscure natural differences by overlaying them with artificial ones. I am well aware, however, that when all is said, differences of opinion will remain, and I only wish to express, once more, a hope that difference of opinion need not become intolerance; that however this question is settled, we shall all be true to the noble and hitherto unbroken traditions of Cambridge that by-gones are by-gones, and that the morrow of a conflict here always finds victors and vanquished ready to join hands without any lessening of mutual regard and respect. Nothing would grieve me more than to have had any share in so carrying on the discussion as to render this more difficult.
Marion Grace Kennedy."