Celebrating 100 Years of Trinity Women Graduates Association

The Trinity Women Graduates Association (TWG), formerly DUWGA, is one of the oldest Associations in Trinity, founded in 1922 and celebrating its centenary in 2022.

For over three hundred years, Trinity College Dublin refused entry to women. In 1892, this bar was challenged head-on when ten thousand Irish women signed a petition demanding its abolition. Despite on-going opposition to the higher education of women, in 1904 Trinity College became the first of the historic universities of Ireland and Britain to admit women to degrees.

A century later, sixty per cent of the student body is female.

However, even in the 1960s, women students were still refused campus accommodation, had to leave Trinity by six o’clock and dine separately – all because their presence was judged to be ‘a danger to the men’.

The TWG Archive traces the long campaign for admission, the achievements of early women graduates and the struggle for equality by female students and staff. Lively memoirs and reminiscences of women graduates, collected by the TWG, combine with academic essays, to tell the fascinating story of one hundred years of women in Trinity and the influence of the women graduates on Trinity and Irish society.

Trinity opened its doors to female students in 1904. Unlike Oxford and Cambridge, where women had for some years been admitted to separate female colleges within the overall university, both men and women would be admitted to the University of Dublin's only college (Trinity) and it was felt there would be no rationale to restrict successful female students from graduating to become members of the university, like their male counterparts. In accordance with the long-standing formula of ad eundem mutual recognition that existed between Dublin, Oxford and Cambridge, the Provost of Trinity College proposed that eligible female Oxbridge course completers be granted Trinity degrees, as was the case for men.

"Steamboat ladies" was a nickname given to a number of female students at the women's colleges of the universities of Oxford and Cambridge who were awarded ad eundem University of Dublin degrees at Trinity College Dublin, between 1904 and 1907, at a time when their own universities refused to confer degrees upon women.The name comes from the means of transport commonly used by these women to travel to Dublin for this purpose.

The Board of Trinity College thought that only small numbers of women would take up the offer to graduate and that they would be Irish women who had studied in Oxford or Cambridge colleges. In fact, by 1907 Trinity had granted degrees to some 720 "steamboat ladies". All had passed examinations at Oxbridge that would have earned them a degree if they were male.The women were predominately students of Girton and Newnham Colleges Cambridge and Somerville College, Oxford.

Money deriving from the degree conferral fees that female graduates paid during this period were largely used to fund the purchase of Trinity Hall, an extramural hall of residence for female students, which opened in 1908.

The TWG Archive is a priceless collection of correspondence and documents written and preserved throughout the last 100 years by Trinity women graduates. This archive unlocks a story spanning 100 years, beginning with a quiet revolution, then resilience in times of discrimination, coping during the Emergency years and finally breaking the mould to bring about real change and equality for women.

The Archive uncovers gems of untold history such as how in 1923 Vida Barcroft shared her class notes with her friend and classmate Mr Samuel Beckett, which she believed helped him in no small part to win a scholarship to study in Paris – and the rest is history. It is incredible to learn that in the late 1930’s Joyce Craig, led a group demanding equal dining facilities with men. A complaint from 1967 in relation to Commons notes that ‘two non males did eat and sup in your august dining hall’ and suggests that more stringent methods be used to determine the gender of all guests to prevent further outbreaks of this nature.

The Hist was defeated by its own rhetoric, admitting women in 1969 when they had earlier declared ‘Not until man walks on the moon will a woman set foot here’. In 1961 the Hist had sent an invitation to Dr Henry at Sir Patrick Dunns Hospital to speak and when the reply came back saying Dr Mary Henry was pleased to accept, “a red faced Hist officer hastily dispatched a letter of apology withdrawing the invitation”.

Provost George Salmon, in 1904, declared “Over my dead body will women enter this College”. And they did. In the first decade, ten women were awarded gold medals for excellence in degree examinations. Yet women staff were not eligible for Fellowship, were not allowed membership of the Common Room nor permitted to dine at Commons, until 1968.

And a final gem to whet your appetite, the story of Leslie Greer, for whose role in the extraordinary work carried out in Bletchley Park, Britain’s second World War code-breaking and intelligence-analysing centre, was awarded an MBE in 2016 for her work.

This is a treasure trove of handwritten letters of hundreds of Trinity women graduates, reflecting the times these women lived in, yet highlighting the universal experiences that women and other marginalised groups can empathise and relate to.

This archive is a celebration of the achievements and hard fought victories of these women to be acknowledged as equal citizens, students, academics and graduates. The year 2022 will mark 100 years of the TWG and an opportunity to share this archive with a wider audience.

Archive Centenary Exhibition

April 2022 - May 2022

The exhibition will be launched by the Provost, in the Long Room of the Old Library, in April 2022.

The Exhibition traces the long campaign for admission, the achievements of early women graduates and the struggle for equality by female students and staff, to tell the fascinating story of one hundred years of women in Trinity and the influence of the women graduates on Trinity and Irish society.

The Centenary Exhibition is on display in the Old Library and can be accessed via the Book of Kells exhibit; a Virtual Exhibition is also now available online.

A webinar, with a guided tour of the Virtual Exhibition by the Archivist, is planned for May 11th, 1-2pm.

We hope you will visit Trinity to enjoy the exhibition, or visit the Virtual Exhibition online.

Launch of TWG Centenary Exhibition by Provost Linda Doyle, April 27th 2022