WOMEN AT OXFORD.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 201, 26 July 1937, Page 6

WOMEN AT OXFORD.

Foit the fifth time a woman has Avon the NeAvdigate Prize for verse at Oxford University, and she joins a most distinguished band Avlio in their student days attained this distinction. It is not so many years ago that this achievement was recorded by a Avoman, so that the sex has a memorable record in this connection. A feAv years ago a woman also won fame at the UniA'ersity Avlien she received one of the Craven Scholarships, the first time this had happened. This outstanding performance led a commentator to obserA 7 e that ever since women were admitted to Oxford, more than half a century ago, it lias been freely acknowledged that they have more than justified the privileges extended to them. They ha Am not greatly modified the social life of the University, but that is not Avliat they sought to do. They have, lioavever, always taken an honourable part in the Avork of the University. At times the assertion lias been made that the best Avomeai scholars have not been serious rivals to the best men, but this judgment has surely " been modified in the light of the success of women competing for the NeAvdigate Prize and the Craven Scholarships. It proves, it has been declared with much force, that women are capable of competing with men in the very highest regions of learning. The CraA’en Scholarships are among the most prized distinctions Oxford has to offer in its principal branch of learning, the study of the classical languages, in Avhich conceded to be the foremost University in the world. The competition for them is naturally very keen, so that it Avas a matter for considerable interest in scholastic circles that a woman should have succeeded. In this country, too, as well as in other parts of the British Empire, and glso in foreign countries, Avomen are taking a larger and more important share in scholarship, fitting themselves for vocations which but a few years ago Avele regarded as the domain of man. Many of them are succeeding to a marked extent and are leaving the impress of their cultural attainments on the community in which they live. For them it must be a matter of the greatest pleasure that another Avoman has been enrolled as the Avinner of the NeAA 7 digate Prize.