General Examination for Women

Candidates for the General Examination for Women were admitted to study at the University of London from 1868.[2] The examination was first held in May 1869 with nine candidates participating. The results were assessed on 15 May 1869, at Somerset House on the Strand, by 17 male examiners.[2] Although the exam could be taken from the age of 17, the average age of the candidates was 21.[3]

In order to receive their certificate, the candidates had to pass a minimum of six papers from, "Latin, English Language, English History, Geography, Mathematics, Natural Philosophy, two from Greek, French, German and Italian, and either Chemistry or Botany".[2] The questions included an essay on the character of Queen Elizabeth, a request to enumerate "the principal rivers in North America", and the calculation of the square root of 384524.01. On the advice of the Home Office, a "female attendant" or matron was made available in case the candidates should become over-excited by being brought to London for examination.[1][2]

Despite the examination being as difficult as the existing Matriculation Examination, only a Certificate of Proficiency was issued to the successful candidates, rather than a degree.[2]

The first nine candidates in 1869, sometimes known as "the London nine", were:[2][4]

• Marian Belcher (1849–1898) became headmistress of Bedford High School.
• Louise Hume von Glehn (1850–1936) became Louise Hume Creighton and wrote popular historical biographies and campaigned for working women and in the suffrage movement.
• Hendilah Lawrence
• Sarah Jane Moody (1844–1916) founded a preparatory school in Guildford with her sisters.
• Eliza Orme (1848–1937) became the first woman to earn a law degree in England and was active in the prison reform and suffrage movements.
• Kate Spiller (1847–1915) joined her local school board in Bridgwater, Somerset.
• Mary Anna Baker Watson (1828–1901) became a governess and school teacher in Northamptonshire.
• Isabella de Lancy West (studied at Bedford College)
• Susannah Wood (1844–1939) graduated with a BSc and taught mathematics. She became the vice-principal of the Cambridge Training College for Women (later Hughes Hall, Cambridge).

All passed with honours apart from Belcher, Lawrence, and Baker-Watson who did not pass. Belcher re-sat and passed in 1870.[2]

The suffrage campaigner and translator Henrietta Frances Lord passed the exam in 1872.[5]

• 
  Marian Belcher[6]
• 
  Louise Creighton aged 27 by Bertha Johnson, 1878.[7]
• 
  Eliza Orme[8]

Over the subsequent decade until the exam was last held in 1878, over 264 candidates took the exam, some of whom were re-takes or additional qualifications meaning that the actual number of individual women who participated was somewhat lower than 264.[2][3] Of these 139 passed, of whom 53 passed with honours.[2]

Of the 139:[3]

• 44 were pupils of Cheltenham Ladies College
• 40 prepared by private study or tuition
• 28 were pupils of the North London Collegiate School
• 27 attended other schools and institutions.

In 1878, there were 42 candidates of whom 24 passed.[1]

The certificate ceased to be offered from 1878 as it provided evidence that there was no necessity to examine men and women separately.[3] Women were allowed to study for University of London degrees from that year and the women-only colleges of Westfield and Royal Holloway were founded in 1882 and 1886 respectively. In 1895, 10% of the university's graduates were women, and 30% by 1900.[2]

• Edinburgh Seven

• Myers, Christine (2010). University Coeducation in the Victorian Era: Inclusion in the United States and the United Kingdom. Springer. ISBN 9780230109933.
• Rowold, Katharina (2011). The Educated Woman: Minds, Bodies, and Women's Higher Education in Britain, Germany, and Spain, 1865-1914. Routledge. ISBN 9781134625833.
• May Sheffield, Suzanne Le (2006). Women and Science: Social Impact and Interaction. Rutgers University Press. ISBN 9780813537375.