Women's education evolved very differently in Britain and America. In Britain, the first BA degrees were awarded to women in 1880; by that time, American medical schools had already produced a host of female doctors, and women could obtain degrees both in women's and co-educational colleges. Oberlin College, founded in 1833, was the first to accept women as well as men; Wesleyan College of Georgia (founded in 1839 as the Georgia Female College) claims to be the first college in the world chartered to grant degrees to women. This is not to say that women didn't struggle to achieve the right to higher education in America - only that the struggle seems to have been won quite a bit earlier than in Britain!

Medical Colleges for Women (Godey's, 1860)

Women's Colleges (Godey's, 1868)

A look at the Michigan Female College and the Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania.

Free National Normal Schools for Young Women (Godey's, 1868)

"Normal Schools" were teacher-training colleges.

Vassar College, by Anna C. Brackett (Harper's Monthly, 1876A)

Wellesley College, by Edward Abbott (Harper's Monthly, 1876B)

Colleges for Women (Cassell's Family Magazine, 1880)

Girton College, by J.A. Owen (Girl's Own Paper, 1880)

On the origins of the first residential college for women in the UK.

Our Own Colleges (Girl's Own Paper, 1880)

An overview of colleges offering higher education to women.

Our Own Schools (Girl's Own Paper, 1880)

An overview of the best public schools for women.

Durham Degrees for Women (Girl's Own Paper, 1881)

Evening Colleges for Women, by Mercy Grogan (Cassell's Family Magazine, 1881)

The North London Collegiate School for Girls (Girl's Own Paper, 1882)

The Dream of Princess Ida (Girl's Own Paper, 1884)

More on the founding of Girton College.

Education for Women at Oxford (Girl's Own Paper, 1884)

[Barnard College, NY] A New College for Women (Century Magazine, 1889B)

The First Female College (Century Magazine, 1890B)

The Georgia Female College, chartered in 1836.

On the Opening of the Johns Hopkins Medical School to Women, by James, Cardinal Gibbons, Baltimore (Century Magazine, 1891A)

The author is very much in favor of having more female physicians.

Women at an English University: Newnham College, Cambridge, by Eleanor Field (Century Magazine, 1891B)

The Education of Our Girls, by Raymond Blathwayt (Cassell's Family Magazine, 1894)

A talk with Miss Buss, Headmistress of the North London Collegiate School for Girls.

The Education of Our Girls: Life at Girton College, by Raymond Blathwayt (Cassell's Family Magazine, 1894)

Girton and Newnham Colleges, by E.A. Brayley Hodgetts (Strand, 1894B)

Festivals in American Colleges for Women, by A.A. Wood (Century Magazine, 1895A)

University Degrees for Women: Their History and Value, by Katherine St. John Conway

Girls' Schools of Today: Cheltenham College, by L.T. Meade (Strand, 1895A)

Girls' Schools of Today: St. Leonard's and Great Harrowden Hall, by L.T. Meade (Strand, 1895A)

A Day at Vassar, by Helen Marshall North (Demorest, 1896)

Newnham and After, by Christabel Osborn (Windsor Magazine, 1896B)

The second UK college to admit women. "The women's colleges at Oxford and Cambridge have recently been brought prominently before the notice of the public through the discussion on the granting of degrees, and the vexed question of the value to women of a university education, its nature and its results, has been considered again and again... There is no better way than a college course for obtaining a clear perception of one's own ignorance..."

Concerning Girton, by R.S. Warren Bell (Windsor Magazine, 1897B)

"The Girtonian is little more than a big schoolgirl ; when she is not working she is playing - or talking - hockey, cycling, golfing, or drinking tea; she is blessed with an excellent appetite; she goes to bed early and she gets up early."

A Russian Girton, by Alder Anderson (Strand, 1901A)

The Women's University in St. Petersburg.

[Royal Holloway College] A Model Women's College, by Charles Ray (Good Words, 1902)

College Examinations

For many years, women could take exams at universities such as Cambridge or Oxford, be informed of their placement, yet be excluded from receiving the degree for which that place would have qualified them had they been male. As the author of University Degrees for Women puts it, the colleges "allow them the substance but not the shadow." One reason for this exclusion was that to actually receive the degrees would have made women eligible to be on the governing bodies of those same universities, and "eligible for their various bursaries and emoluments." Despite the fact that taking an exam did not necessarily confer a degree, women flocked to the exams and demonstrated that, in fact, their brains would not explode from the pressure!

What Is a Degree? (Cassell's Family Magazine, 1876)

In explaining precisely what a university degree is and how one obtains one, this article also skillfully describes the entire examination process (including what is meant by the "Little-Go" and "Great-Go" exams).

How to Prepare for an Examination (Cassell's Family Magazine, 1877)

Local Examinations (Cassell's Family Magazine, 1877)

Higher Examinations for Women (Cassell's Family Magazine, 1878)

Examinations and How to Prepare for Them, by James Mason (Girl's Own Paper, 1881)

A Talk About the Cambridge Local Examinations, by Anne Mercier (Girl's Own Paper, 1881)

That Dreadful Examination, by Barbara Foxley (Cassell's Family Magazine, 1885)

Useful Hints for Examination Candidates, by the Rev. Thomas B. Willson (Girl's Own Paper, 1886)