Women in the University

As Gender Champion, I am delighted to welcome you to the Women in the University webpages. As a graduate of the University of Glasgow, I am immensely proud of the contribution that women have made to this great institution over the centuries. As a medical student here in the late 1970s, my year group was the first in the University’s long history to have a 50:50 split between women and men. While that was welcome, I also still remember the shock expressed when one of the women in my year wore a trouser suit on a clinical placement. Thankfully we have progressed a great deal in terms of gender equality since then. The fact that I was the first woman to become head of the undergraduate Medical School in Glasgow and that I am now the first woman Clerk of Senate after 290 years of men gives me personal satisfaction but there is more to be done.

While barred from study and teaching roles at the University until 1892, women have been part of our story for centuries – Mary, Queen of Scots was among our early benefactors in 1563. New stories of the achievements of previous generations continually come to light. We recently celebrated the centenary of the graduation of Madge Easton Anderson. Having been the first Glasgow woman law graduate in 1919, she became the first woman to qualify as a solicitor in the United Kingdom in 1920. Working as an apprentice at the law firm Maclay, Murray and Spens since 1917, she was permitted to act as a law agent with the passing of the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act, 1919.

I believe strongly in the importance of education in helping to drive progress and change. I hope you take heart from reading these stories of Glasgow’s women. Perhaps you will even be inspired to play a part in advancing the goals of the Athena SWAN charter and work to bring equal representation, progression and success for all members of the University of Glasgow community.

Professor Jill Morrison

Women Graduates by Year

Click on a column to view the records of these women.

Visit the University of Glasgow's Equality and Diversity Unit or for more information about gender history visit the University of Glasgow's Centre for Gender History.