The following is a list of notable people associated with
Somerville College, Oxford
Somerville College is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It was founded in 1879 as Somerville Hall, one of its first two women's colleges. It began admitting men in 1994. The colle ...
, including alumni and fellows of the college. This list consists almost entirely of women, due to the fact that Somerville College was one of the first two
women's college
Women's colleges in higher education are undergraduate, bachelor's degree-granting institutions, often liberal arts colleges, whose student populations are composed exclusively or almost exclusively of women. Some women's colleges admit male st ...
s of the
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...
, admitting men for the first time in 1994. The college and its alumni have played a very important role in
feminism
Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...
.
Somervillians include prime ministers
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013), was a British stateswoman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of th ...
and
Indira Gandhi
Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi (Given name, ''née'' Nehru; 19 November 1917 – 31 October 1984) was an Indian politician and stateswoman who served as the Prime Minister of India, prime minister of India from 1966 to 1977 and again from 1980 un ...
, Nobel-Prize-winning scientist
Dorothy Hodgkin
Dorothy Mary Crowfoot Hodgkin (née Crowfoot; 12 May 1910 – 29 July 1994) was a Nobel Prize-winning English chemist who advanced the technique of X-ray crystallography to determine the structure of biomolecules, which became essential for ...
Vera Brittain
Vera Mary Brittain (29 December 1893 – 29 March 1970) was an English Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) nurse, writer, feminist, socialist and pacifist. Her best-selling 1933 memoir '' Testament of Youth'' recounted her experiences during the Fir ...
Iris Murdoch
Dame Jean Iris Murdoch ( ; 15 July 1919 – 8 February 1999) was an Irish and British novelist and philosopher. Murdoch is best known for her novels about good and evil, sexual relationships, morality, and the power of the unconscious. Her fi ...
Sam Gyimah
Samuel Phillip Gyimah (; born 10 August 1976) is a British politician and banker who served as the Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) for East Surrey (UK Parliament constituency), East Surrey from 2010 United Kingd ...
, socialite
Lady Ottoline Morrell
Lady Ottoline Violet Anne Morrell (née Cavendish-Bentinck; 16 June 1873 – 21 April 1938) was an English Aristocracy (class), aristocrat and society hostess. Her patronage was influential in artistic and intellectual circles, where she befri ...
G. E. M. Anscombe
Gertrude Elizabeth Margaret Anscombe (; 18 March 1919 – 5 January 2001), usually cited as G. E. M. Anscombe or Elizabeth Anscombe, was a British analytic philosopher. She wrote on the philosophy of mind, philosophy of action, philosophi ...
Mary Midgley
Mary Beatrice Midgley (' Scrutton; 13 September 1919 – 10 October 2018) was a British philosopher. A senior lecturer in philosophy at Newcastle University, she was known for her work on science, ethics and animal rights. She wrote her first b ...
Moon Moon Sen
Moon Moon Sen, also credited as Moonmoon Sen (born Srimati Sen; 28 March 1954), is an Indian actress, known for her works in Hindi, Bengali, Malayalam, Kannada, Telugu, Tamil, and Marathi films. She eventually starred in Bollywood films. S ...
life peer
In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the peerage whose titles cannot be inherited, in contrast to hereditary peers. Life peers are appointed by the monarch on the advice of the prime minister. With the exception of the D ...
s, 11 MP's, 4 Olympic rowers, 3 of ''The 50 greatest British writers since 1945'', 2 prime ministers, 2 princesses, a
queen consort
A queen consort is the wife of a reigning king, and usually shares her spouse's social Imperial, royal and noble ranks, rank and status. She holds the feminine equivalent of the king's monarchical titles and may be crowned and anointed, but hi ...
Nobel laureate
The Nobel Prizes (, ) are awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Swedish Academy, the Karolinska Institutet, and the Norwegian Nobel Committee to individuals and organizations who make outstanding contributions in th ...
.
image:Margaret Thatcher (1983).jpg,
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013), was a British stateswoman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of th ...
, first woman
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government of the United Kingdom. The prime minister Advice (constitutional law), advises the Monarchy of the United Kingdom, sovereign on the exercise of much of the Royal prerogative ...
(1979–1990)
image:Indira Gandhi 1977.jpg,
Indira Gandhi
Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi (Given name, ''née'' Nehru; 19 November 1917 – 31 October 1984) was an Indian politician and stateswoman who served as the Prime Minister of India, prime minister of India from 1966 to 1977 and again from 1980 un ...
, first and only woman
Prime Minister of India
The prime minister of India (ISO 15919, ISO: ) is the head of government of the Republic of India. Executive authority is vested in the prime minister and his chosen Union Council of Ministers, Council of Ministers, despite the president of ...
(1966–1977, 1980–1984) and "Woman of the Millennium"
image:Dorothy Hodgkin Nobel.jpg,
Dorothy Hodgkin
Dorothy Mary Crowfoot Hodgkin (née Crowfoot; 12 May 1910 – 29 July 1994) was a Nobel Prize-winning English chemist who advanced the technique of X-ray crystallography to determine the structure of biomolecules, which became essential for ...
, the first and only British woman scientist to have been awarded a
Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes ( ; ; ) are awards administered by the Nobel Foundation and granted in accordance with the principle of "for the greatest benefit to humankind". The prizes were first awarded in 1901, marking the fifth anniversary of Alfred N ...
Firsts
Somervillians have achieved a good number of "firsts", internationally, nationally and at Oxford University. The most distinguished are the first woman Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013), was a British stateswoman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of th ...
, the first and only British woman to win a Nobel Prize in science
Dorothy Hodgkin
Dorothy Mary Crowfoot Hodgkin (née Crowfoot; 12 May 1910 – 29 July 1994) was a Nobel Prize-winning English chemist who advanced the technique of X-ray crystallography to determine the structure of biomolecules, which became essential for ...
, and the first woman to lead the world's largest democracy
Indira Gandhi
Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi (Given name, ''née'' Nehru; 19 November 1917 – 31 October 1984) was an Indian politician and stateswoman who served as the Prime Minister of India, prime minister of India from 1966 to 1977 and again from 1980 un ...
, Prime Minister of
India
India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
for much of the 1970s. Others include Cornelia Sorabji, first female lawyer in
India
India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
and first Indian national to study at any British university; Anne Warburton, first female British ambassador; Constance Coltman, Britain's first woman to be an ordained Anglican minister; Shriti Vadera, Baroness Vadera, first woman to head a major British bank and chair the
Royal Shakespeare Company
The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs over 1,000 staff and opens around 20 productions a year. The RSC plays regularly in London, Stratf ...
permanent secretary
A permanent secretary is the most senior Civil Service (United Kingdom), civil servant of a department or Ministry (government department), ministry charged with running the department or ministry's day-to-day activities. Permanent secretaries are ...
neurosurgeon
Neurosurgery or neurological surgery, known in common parlance as brain surgery, is the medical specialty that focuses on the surgical treatment or rehabilitation of disorders which affect any portion of the nervous system including the brain, ...
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...
's first woman diplomat
* Margery Abrahams, first chairperson of the
British Dietetic Association
The British Dietetic Association (BDA) is a trade union for dietitians in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1936 and became a certified union in 1982. It is affiliated to the Trades Union Congress and the Scottish Trades Union Congress.
H ...
Scotland
Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...
's first
Amnesty International
Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says that it has more than ten million members a ...
employee
* Caroline Alexander, first woman to publish a full-length English translation of
Homer
Homer (; , ; possibly born ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Despite doubts about his autho ...
's
Iliad
The ''Iliad'' (; , ; ) is one of two major Ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the ''Odyssey'', the poem is divided into 24 books and ...
New Zealand
New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...
neurosurgeon
Neurosurgery or neurological surgery, known in common parlance as brain surgery, is the medical specialty that focuses on the surgical treatment or rehabilitation of disorders which affect any portion of the nervous system including the brain, ...
in the United Kingdom
* Farah Bhatti, first British woman of
Pakistan
Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...
i origins to be made a cardiac surgeon in the United Kingdom; first Muslim on the council of the
Royal College of Surgeons of England
The Royal College of Surgeons of England (RCS England) is an independent professional body and registered charity that promotes and advances standards of surgery, surgical care for patients, and regulates surgery and dentistry in England and Wa ...
Susanne Bobzien
Susanne Bobzien (born 1960) is a German-born philosopherWho'sWho in America 2012, 64th Edition whose research interests focus on philosophy of logic and language, determinism and freedom, and ancient philosophy. She is currently a visiting rese ...
, first woman to be appointed a tutorial fellow at
The Queen's College, Oxford
The Queen's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford, England. The college was founded in 1341 by Robert de Eglesfield in honour of Philippa of Hainault, queen of England. It is distinguished by its predominantly neoclassi ...
* Lalage Bown, first organizing secretary of the International Congress of Africanists, first woman to receive the William Pearson Tolley Award from
Syracuse University
Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York, United States. It was established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church but has been nonsectarian since 1920 ...
Averil Cameron
Dame Averil Millicent Cameron ( Sutton; born 8 February 1940), often cited as A. M. Cameron, is a British historian. She writes on Late Antiquity, Classics, and Byzantine Studies. She was Professor of Late Antiquity, Late Antique and Byzantine ...
African Studies Association
The African Studies Association (ASA) is a US-based association of scholars, students, practitioners, and institutions with an interest in the continent of Africa. Founded in 1957, the ASA is the leading organization of African Studies in North ...
Coventry University
Coventry University is a Public university, public research university in Coventry, England. The origins of Coventry University can be linked to the Coventry School of Art and Design, Coventry School of Design in 1843. It was known as Lancheste ...
, first black woman to be Partner in a
City
A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...
law firm
* Ethel Charles, first woman to be admitted to the
Royal Institute of British Architects
The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally, founded for the advancement of architecture under its royal charter granted in 1837, three suppl ...
and, with her sister Bessie, the first woman to study architecture at
University College London
University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...
Queen's University Belfast
The Queen's University of Belfast, commonly known as Queen's University Belfast (; abbreviated Queen's or QUB), is a public research university in Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom. The university received its charter in 1845 as part of ...
Suffolk Coastal
Suffolk Coastal was a Non-metropolitan district, local government district in Suffolk, England. Its council was based in Melton, Suffolk, Melton, having moved from neighbouring Woodbridge, Suffolk, Woodbridge in 2017. Other towns include Fel ...
Maria Czaplicka
Maria Antonina Czaplicka (25 October 1884 – 27 May 1921), also referred to as Marya Antonina Czaplicka and Marie Antoinette Czaplicka, was a Polish cultural anthropologist who is best known for her ethnography of Siberian shamanism. Czaplicka ...
, first woman to receive a Mianowski Scholarship and first female lecturer in anthropology at Oxford
*
Ann Dally
Ann Dally (29 March 1926, in London – 24 March 2007, in Graffham, West Sussex) was an English author and psychiatrist.
Born Ann Gwendolen Mullins, she was the eldest child of the lawyer Claud William Mullins (1887–1968) and his wife, the ...
, first woman to study medicine at
St Thomas' Hospital
St Thomas' Hospital is a large NHS teaching hospital in Central London, England. Administratively part of the Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, together with Guy's Hospital, Evelina London Children's Hospital, Royal Brompton Hospita ...
* Helen Darbishire, first woman to be chair of the faculty board of English at Oxford
* Elsbeth Dimsdale, first woman to receive a college fellowship at the
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...
natural science
Natural science or empirical science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer ...
s
* Fiona Freckleton, won Great Britain's first medal in a major World Championship women's rowing event
* Maggie Gee, first female Chair of the
Royal Society of Literature
The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820 by King George IV to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, the RSL has about 800 Fellows, elect ...
British Archaeological Association
The British Archaeological Association (BAA) was founded in 1843 and aims to inspire, support and disseminate high quality research in the fields of Western archaeology, art and architecture, primarily of the mediaeval period, through lectures, co ...
Austria
Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...
n woman to gain a
habilitation
Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in Germany, France, Italy, Poland and some other European and non-English-speaking countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excelle ...
at university and
Vienna
Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...
Muslim
Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...
Dorothy Hodgkin
Dorothy Mary Crowfoot Hodgkin (née Crowfoot; 12 May 1910 – 29 July 1994) was a Nobel Prize-winning English chemist who advanced the technique of X-ray crystallography to determine the structure of biomolecules, which became essential for ...
, also the first woman to receive maternity pay at Oxford and first female Chancellor of the
University of Bristol
The University of Bristol is a public university, public research university in Bristol, England. It received its royal charter in 1909, although it can trace its roots to a Merchant Venturers' school founded in 1595 and University College, Br ...
*
Rosalind Hursthouse
Rosalind Hursthouse (born 10 November 1943) is a British-born New Zealand moral philosopher noted for her work on virtue ethics. She is one of the leading exponents of contemporary virtue ethics, though she has also written extensively on ...
, first woman to teach at an all men's college in Oxford
* Evelyn Irons, first female
war correspondent
A war correspondent is a journalist who covers stories first-hand from a war, war zone.
War correspondence stands as one of journalism's most important and impactful forms. War correspondents operate in the most conflict-ridden parts of the wor ...
to be decorated with the French
Croix de Guerre
The (, ''Cross of War'') is a military decoration of France. It was first created in 1915 and consists of a square-cross medal on two crossed swords, hanging from a ribbon with various degree pins. The decoration was first awarded during World ...
, first journalist to reach certain
WWII
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA ) is an American scientific and regulatory agency charged with Weather forecasting, forecasting weather, monitoring oceanic and atmospheric conditions, Hydrography, charting the seas, ...
PwC
PricewaterhouseCoopers, also known as PwC, is a Multinational corporation, multinational professional services network based in London, United Kingdom.
It is the second-largest professional services network in the world and is one of the Big Fo ...
* Kathleen Kenyon, first female president of the Oxford University Archaeological Society
* Doris Ketelbey, first woman historian to hold a long-term position at the
University of St Andrews
The University of St Andrews (, ; abbreviated as St And in post-nominals) is a public university in St Andrews, Scotland. It is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, oldest of the four ancient universities of Scotland and, f ...
Uganda
Uganda, officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the ...
n woman to be appointed High Court judge and Chief Magistrate
* Alix Kilroy, one of the first two women to have entered the administrative grade of the Civil Service by examination
* Akua Kuenyehia, first First Vice-president of the ICC and
Ghana
Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situated along the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and shares borders with Côte d’Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to t ...
's first female law professor
* Christine Lee, first female scholar of the
Oxford University Medical School
Oxford University School of Medicine & Biomedical Sciences is the medical school of the University of Oxford in the city of Oxford, England. It is a component of the Medical Sciences Division, University of Oxford, Medical Sciences Division, an ...
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...
* Hilda Lorimer, one of the first three women to participate in an excavation conducted by the
British School at Athens
The British School at Athens (BSA; ) is an institute for advanced research, one of the eight British International Research Institutes supported by the British Academy, that promotes the study of Greece in all its aspects. Under UK law it is a reg ...
Queen's Counsel
A King's Counsel (Post-nominal letters, post-nominal initials KC) is a senior lawyer appointed by the monarch (or their Viceroy, viceregal representative) of some Commonwealth realms as a "Counsel learned in the law". When the reigning monarc ...
designation, and first woman to receive the Elizabeth Torrance Medal at
McGill University
McGill University (French: Université McGill) is an English-language public research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill University, Vol. I. For the Advancement of Learning, ...
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...
Permanent secretary
A permanent secretary is the most senior Civil Service (United Kingdom), civil servant of a department or Ministry (government department), ministry charged with running the department or ministry's day-to-day activities. Permanent secretaries are ...
at
HM Treasury
His Majesty's Treasury (HM Treasury or HMT), and informally referred to as the Treasury, is the Government of the United Kingdom’s economic and finance ministry. The Treasury is responsible for public spending, financial services policy, Tax ...
Lucy Powell
Lucy Maria Powell (born 10 October 1974) is a British politician who has served as Leader of the House of Commons and Lord President of the Council since July 2024. A member of the Labour and Co-operative parties, she has been the Member of Pa ...
Biblioteca Nacional de España
The (National Library of Spain) is the national library of Spain. It is the largest public library in the country, and one of the largest in the world. Founded in 1711, it is an autonomous agency attached to the Ministry of Culture since 1 ...
* Esther Rantzen, first woman to receive a Dimbleby Award from
BAFTA
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA, ) is an independent trade association and charity that supports, develops, and promotes the arts of film, television and video games in the United Kingdom. In addition to its annual awa ...
Kenyon Medal
The Kenyon Medal is awarded every two years by the British Academy 'in recognition of work in the field of classical studies and archaeology'. The medal was endowed by Sir Frederic Kenyon and was first awarded in 1957.
List of recipients
SourceB ...
* Jean Robinson, first blind British woman to graduate from university
* Katherine Routledge, initiated the first true survey of
Easter Island
Easter Island (, ; , ) is an island and special territory of Chile in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeasternmost point of the Polynesian Triangle in Oceania. The island is renowned for its nearly 1,000 extant monumental statues, ...
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
''
* Susan M. Scott, first female physicist to win the Prime Minister's Prizes for Science
* Margaret Seward, first Oxford female student to be entered for the honour school of Mathematics, one of the first two women students at Oxford studying chemistry, earliest Chemist on staff at the Royal Holloway (of which she was a founding Lecturer) and pioneer woman to obtain a first class in the honour school of Natural Science
* Chehrzad Shakiban, first Iranian woman to receive a Ph.D. in mathematics, first Iranian woman to become a full professor of mathematics, and first female full professor at the University of St. Thomas (Minnesota)
* Lucy Sichone, first
Zambia
Zambia, officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern and East Africa. It is typically referred to being in South-Central Africa or Southern Africa. It is bor ...
n woman to receive a
Rhodes Scholarship
The Rhodes Scholarship is an international postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford in Oxford, United Kingdom. The scholarship is open to people from all backgrounds around the world.
Established in 1902, it is ...
and first woman to have her portrait displayed on the walls of the prestigious
Rhodes House
Rhodes House is a building part of the University of Oxford in England. It is located on South Parks Road in central Oxford, and was built in memory of Cecil Rhodes, an alumnus of the university and a major benefactor. It is Listed building#En ...
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...
*
Mary Somerville
Mary Somerville ( ; , formerly Greig; 26 December 1780 – 29 November 1872) was a Scottish scientist, writer, and polymath. She studied mathematics and astronomy, and in 1835 she and Caroline Herschel were elected as the first female Honorar ...
St Edmund Hall, Oxford
St Edmund Hall (also known as The Hall and Teddy Hall) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. The college claims to be "the oldest surviving academic society to house and educate undergraduates in any university" and was the las ...
Society of Antiquaries of London
The Society of Antiquaries of London (SAL) is a learned society of historians and archaeologists in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1707, received its royal charter in 1751 and is a Charitable organization, registered charity. It is based ...
Birmingham University
The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university in Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingham (founded in 1825 as ...
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in West Asia. Located in the centre of the Middle East, it covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries ...
n woman to obtain a M.St. and a D.Phil. from Oxford
feminist
Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...
, human rights campaigner and
child welfare
Child protection (also called child welfare) is the safeguarding of children from violence, exploitation, abuse, abandonment, and neglect. It involves identifying signs of potential harm. This includes responding to allegations or suspicions ...
advocate; founder of
Amnesty International
Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says that it has more than ten million members a ...
's
Scotland
Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...
Feminist Theory
Feminist theory is the extension of feminism into theoretical, fictional, or Philosophy, philosophical discourse. It aims to understand the nature of gender inequality. It examines women's and men's Gender role, social roles, experiences, intere ...
suffragette
A suffragette was a member of an activist women's organisation in the early 20th century who, under the banner "Votes for Women", fought for the right to vote in public elections in the United Kingdom. The term refers in particular to members ...
* Margaret Bramall (1916-2007), social worker and charity director; led the
Gingerbread
Gingerbread refers to a broad category of baked goods, typically flavored with ginger root, ginger, cloves, nutmeg, and cinnamon and sweetened with honey, sugar, or molasses. Gingerbread foods vary, ranging from a moist loaf cake to forms nearly ...
from 1963 to 1979
*
Vera Brittain
Vera Mary Brittain (29 December 1893 – 29 March 1970) was an English Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) nurse, writer, feminist, socialist and pacifist. Her best-selling 1933 memoir '' Testament of Youth'' recounted her experiences during the Fir ...
pacifist
Pacifism is the opposition to war or violence. The word ''pacifism'' was coined by the French peace campaigner Émile Arnaud and adopted by other peace activists at the tenth Universal Peace Congress in Glasgow in 1901. A related term is ''a ...
Stella Browne
Stella Browne (9 May 1880 – 8 May 1955) was a Canadian-born British feminist, socialist, sex radical, and birth control campaigner. She was one of the primary women in the fight for women's right to control and make decisions regarding their ...
(1880–1955), Canadian-born feminist, socialist, sex radical, and
birth control
Birth control, also known as contraception, anticonception, and fertility control, is the use of methods or devices to prevent pregnancy. Birth control has been used since ancient times, but effective and safe methods of birth control only be ...
campaigner; one of the first women to speak out in somewhat offensive ways about her beliefs with a "Forward, Charge!" approach
* Cicely Corbett Fisher (1885–1959), suffragist and
workers' rights
Labor rights or workers' rights are both legal rights and human rights relating to labor relations between workers and employers. These rights are codified in national and international labor and employment law. In general, ...
co-operative
A cooperative (also known as co-operative, coöperative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democr ...
activist and founder of the International Women's Co-operative Guild
* Lilian Faithfull CBE (1865–1952), teacher, headmistress,
women's rights
Women's rights are the rights and Entitlement (fair division), entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st c ...
advocate,
magistrate
The term magistrate is used in a variety of systems of governments and laws to refer to a civilian officer who administers the law. In ancient Rome, a '' magistratus'' was one of the highest ranking government officers, and possessed both judi ...
, social worker and humanitarian; one of the " Steamboat ladies" who were part of the struggle for women to gain university education
* Lettice Fisher (1875–1956), founder of the National Council for the Unmarried Mother and her Child, now known as
Gingerbread
Gingerbread refers to a broad category of baked goods, typically flavored with ginger root, ginger, cloves, nutmeg, and cinnamon and sweetened with honey, sugar, or molasses. Gingerbread foods vary, ranging from a moist loaf cake to forms nearly ...
Electoral Reform Society
The Electoral Reform Society (ERS) is an Advocacy group, independent advocacy organisation in the United Kingdom which promotes electoral reform. It seeks to replace first-past-the-post voting with proportional representation, advocating the si ...
* Margaret Hills (1882–1967), teacher, suffragist organiser, feminist and socialist; first female
councillor
A councillor, alternatively councilman, councilwoman, councilperson, or council member, is someone who sits on, votes in, or is a member of, a council. This is typically an elected representative of an electoral district in a municipal or re ...
cannabis
''Cannabis'' () is a genus of flowering plants in the family Cannabaceae that is widely accepted as being indigenous to and originating from the continent of Asia. However, the number of species is disputed, with as many as three species be ...
Iceland
Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...
's foremost 20th-century authors and feminist politicians
* Freshta Karim (1992), Afghan children's rights activist and television presenter; featured in the Forbes 30 Under 30 selection and in the BBC 100 Women in 2021
* Gurmehar Kaur (1996), Indian student activist and author of '' Small Acts of Freedom''; included by
Time Magazine
''Time'' (stylized in all caps as ''TIME'') is an American news magazine based in New York City. It was published weekly for nearly a century. Starting in March 2020, it transitioned to every other week. It was first published in New York Cit ...
in their "10 Next Generation Leaders" list for 2017
* Judith Kazantzis (1940–2018), poet and political and social activist
* Genevieve Lloyd (1941), Australian philosopher and
feminist
Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...
; first female Professor of Philosophy in Australia; author of '' The Man of Reason''
* Sheila MacDonald Lochhead, British prison reform activist, daughter of Prime Minister
Ramsay MacDonald
James Ramsay MacDonald (; 12 October 18669 November 1937) was a British statesman and politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. The first two of his governments belonged to the Labour Party (UK), Labour Party, where he led ...
RMS Lusitania
RMS ''Lusitania'' was a United Kingdom, British ocean liner launched by the Cunard Line in 1906. The Royal Mail Ship, the world's largest passenger ship until the completion of her sister three months later, in 1907 regained for Britain the ...
councillor
A councillor, alternatively councilman, councilwoman, councilperson, or council member, is someone who sits on, votes in, or is a member of, a council. This is typically an elected representative of an electoral district in a municipal or re ...
Namibia
Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country on the west coast of Southern Africa. Its borders include the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south; in the no ...
n human rights and disability advocate; recognized by ''
Pacific Standard
''Pacific Standard'', founded as ''Miller–McCune'', was an American nonprofit magazine that reported on issues of social and environmental justice. Founded in 2008, the magazine was published in print and online for its first ten years. It was ...
'' as one of their "top 30 thinkers under 30", by Shaw Trust and Powerful Media as one of the 50 most influential people with disabilities in the world, and by South Africa's ''
Mail & Guardian
The ''Mail & Guardian'', formerly the ''Weekly Mail'', is a South African weekly newspaper and website, published by M&G Media in Johannesburg, South Africa. It focuses on political analysis, investigative reporting, Southern African news, loca ...
Toronto
Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...
family allowance
Child benefit or children's allowance is a social security payment which is distributed to the parents or guardians of children, teenagers and in some cases, young adult (psychology), young adults. Countries operate different versions of the benefi ...
and for women's rights; member of the Rathbone family; Somerville's first MP
* Elizabeth Anne Reid AO FASSA (1942), Australian development practitioner, feminist and academic; world's first advisor on women's affairs to a head of government
* Jean Robinson (1896-1963), first blind British woman to graduate from university
* Phoebe Sheavyn (1865-1968), literary scholar and feminist; a professor at
Victoria University of Manchester
The Victoria University of Manchester, usually referred to as simply the University of Manchester, was a university in Manchester, England. It was founded in 1851 as Owens College. In 1880, the college joined the federal Victoria University. A ...
civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' political freedom, freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and ...
activist; first Zambian woman to receive a
Rhodes Scholarship
The Rhodes Scholarship is an international postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford in Oxford, United Kingdom. The scholarship is open to people from all backgrounds around the world.
Established in 1902, it is ...
; first woman to have her portrait displayed on the walls of the prestigious
Rhodes House
Rhodes House is a building part of the University of Oxford in England. It is located on South Parks Road in central Oxford, and was built in memory of Cecil Rhodes, an alumnus of the university and a major benefactor. It is Listed building#En ...
India
India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
and
Britain
Britain most often refers to:
* Great Britain, a large island comprising the countries of England, Scotland and Wales
* The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, a sovereign state in Europe comprising Great Britain and the north-eas ...
; first Indian national to study at any British university
* Hannah Stanton (1913-1993), social worker and anti-apartheid activist
* Radhabai Subbarayan (1891–1960), first female member of the Indian Council of States (Rajya Sabha)
* Summia Tora, Afghan campaigner for women's and refugee rights and a social entrepreneur; included on the BBC's 100 Women list in 2023.
* Farhana Yamin (1965), lawyer, public speaker and climate activist
Architects
* Bessie Charles (1869–1932), architect; with her sister Ethel the first woman to study architecture at
University College London
University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...
* Ethel Charles (1871–1962), architect; first woman to be admitted to the
Royal Institute of British Architects
The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally, founded for the advancement of architecture under its royal charter granted in 1837, three suppl ...
* Diana Rowntree (1915–2008), architect and architectural writer; first architectural writer for ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
''
Archivists
* Sonia Anderson FRHistS FSA (1944–2020), archivist
* Alice Prochaska FRHistS (1947), former archivist and librarian; Principal of Somerville College
* Joan Sinar FRHistS (1925–2015), archivist who set up the county record offices for
Devon
Devon ( ; historically also known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the west ...
and
Derbyshire
Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It borders Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, and South Yorkshire to the north, Nottinghamshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south-east, Staffordshire to the south a ...
Holly Somerville
Holly Somerville is an Irish botanical artist, illustrator and teacher. She has worked for Trinity College, Dublin, and produced the botanical illustrations for the seventh edition of David Webb's ''An Irish Flora''.
Career
Born Holly Nixon in ...
, botanical artist
Authors
* Janet Adam Smith OBE (1905–1999), writer, editor, literary journalist and champion of Scottish literature; assistant editor of '' The Listener''
* Caroline Alexander (1956), American author and classicist; first woman to publish a full-length English translation of
Homer
Homer (; , ; possibly born ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Despite doubts about his autho ...
's
Iliad
The ''Iliad'' (; , ; ) is one of two major Ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the ''Odyssey'', the poem is divided into 24 books and ...
sociolinguistics
Sociolinguistics is the descriptive, scientific study of how language is shaped by, and used differently within, any given society. The field largely looks at how a language changes between distinct social groups, as well as how it varies unde ...
Booker Prize
The Booker Prize, formerly the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a prestigious literary award conferred each year for the best single work of sustained fiction written in the English language, wh ...
and
Lost Man Booker Prize
The Lost Man Booker Prize was a special edition of the Man Booker Prize awarded by a public vote in 2010 to a novel from 1970 as the books published in 1970 were not eligible for the Man Booker Prize due to a rules alteration; until 1970 the priz ...
; one of very few who have both served as a Booker judge and made a Booker shortlist as an author; winner of the Guardian Prize and Phoenix Award
* Lucy M. Boston (1892–1990), novelist who wrote for children and adults; best known for her " Green Knowe" series; winner of the Carnegie Medal
* Marjorie Boulton (1924–2017), author and poet writing in both English and
Esperanto
Esperanto (, ) is the world's most widely spoken Constructed language, constructed international auxiliary language. Created by L. L. Zamenhof in 1887 to be 'the International Language' (), it is intended to be a universal second language for ...
*
Vera Brittain
Vera Mary Brittain (29 December 1893 – 29 March 1970) was an English Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) nurse, writer, feminist, socialist and pacifist. Her best-selling 1933 memoir '' Testament of Youth'' recounted her experiences during the Fir ...
pacifist
Pacifism is the opposition to war or violence. The word ''pacifism'' was coined by the French peace campaigner Émile Arnaud and adopted by other peace activists at the tenth Universal Peace Congress in Glasgow in 1901. A related term is ''a ...
; author of '' Testament of Youth''
* Christine Brooke-Rose (1923–2012), writer and literary critic, known principally for her later, experimental novels
*Dame A. S. Byatt DBE HonFBA (1936-2023), novelist, poet and
Booker Prize
The Booker Prize, formerly the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a prestigious literary award conferred each year for the best single work of sustained fiction written in the English language, wh ...
and
Erasmus Prize
The Erasmus Prize is an annual prize awarded by the board of the Praemium Erasmianum Foundation to individuals or institutions that have made exceptional contributions to culture, society, or social science in Europe and the rest of the world. I ...
winner; one of ''The 50 greatest British writers since 1945''; author of '' Possession: A Romance''
*Lady Susan Chitty (1929-2021), novelist and a writer of biographies
* Anne Crone (1915–1972), Irish novelist and teacher
* Rosemary Dinnage (1928–2015), author and critic; listed by ''
The Observer
''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. First published in 1791, it is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.
In 1993 it was acquired by Guardian Media Group Limited, and operated as a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' ...
'' as one of Britain's top 300 intellectuals in 2011
* Gertrude Minnie Faulding (1875–1961), novelist and children's writerVirginia Blain, Patricia Clements and Isobel Grundy: ''The Feminist Companion to Literature in English. Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present'' (
Batsford
Batsford is a village and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Cotswold (district), Cotswold district of Gloucestershire, England. The village is about north-west of Moreton-in-Marsh. There is a falconry centre close to the village ...
: London, 1990), p. 359.
* Geraldine Penrose Fitzgerald (1846–1939), Irish novelist and catholic convert; arguably the first Catholic Oxford woman student
* Penelope Fitzgerald (1916–2000), writer,
Booker Prize
The Booker Prize, formerly the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a prestigious literary award conferred each year for the best single work of sustained fiction written in the English language, wh ...
winner, one of ''The 50 greatest British writers since 1945''; her final novel, '' The Blue Flower'' is seen as one of "the ten best historical novels" and won the
National Book Critics Circle Award
The National Book Critics Circle Awards are a set of annual American literary awards by the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) to promote "the finest books and reviews published in English".Margaret Forster (1938–2016), novelist, biographer, memoirist, historian and
literary critic
A genre of arts criticism, literary criticism or literary studies is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical analysis of literature' ...
; author of '' Georgy Girl'' and '' Diary of an Ordinary Woman''
* Charis Frankenburg (1892–1985), author; one of the first women eligible for a degree from the University of Oxford; founder of one of the first birth control clinics in England outside London
* Celia Fremlin (1914–2009), writer of mystery fiction; winner of the
Edgar Award
The Edgar Allan Poe Awards, popularly called the Edgars, are presented every year by the Mystery Writers of America which is based in New York City. Named after American writer Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849), a pioneer in the genre, the awards hon ...
* Maggie Gee OBE FRSL (1948), novelist, one of six women among the 20 writers on the ''
Granta
''Granta'' is a literary magazine and publisher in the United Kingdom whose mission centres on its "belief in the power and urgency of the story, both in fiction and non-fiction, and the story's supreme ability to describe, illuminate and make ...
Royal Society of Literature
The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820 by King George IV to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, the RSL has about 800 Fellows, elect ...
(RSL)
* Victoria Glendinning CBE (1937), biographer, critic, broadcaster and novelist; honorary vice-president of
English PEN
Founded in 1921, English PEN is one of the world's first non-governmental organisations and among the first international bodies advocating for human rights. English PEN was the founding centre of PEN International, a worldwide writers' associa ...
; winner of the
James Tait Black Memorial Prize
The James Tait Black Memorial Prizes are literary prizes awarded for literature written in the English language. They, along with the Hawthornden Prize, are Britain's oldest literary awards. Based at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, Un ...
; Vice-president of the Royal Society of Literature
* Judith Grossman, American writer
* Alix Hawley (1975), Canadian novelist
* Emma Henderson (1958), author; shortlisted for the
Women's Prize for Fiction
The Women's Prize for Fiction (previously with sponsor names Orange Prize for Fiction (1996–2006 and 2009–2012), Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction (2007–08) and Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction (2014–2017) is one of the United Kingdom's ...
Iceland
Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...
's foremost 20th Century authors and feminist politicians
* Liz Jensen FRSL (1959), novelist
* Daisy Johnson (1990), writer; youngest author to be shortlisted for the
Booker Prize
The Booker Prize, formerly the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a prestigious literary award conferred each year for the best single work of sustained fiction written in the English language, wh ...
Great House
A great house is a large house or mansion with luxurious appointments and great retinues of indoor and outdoor staff. The term is used mainly historically, especially of properties at the turn of the 20th century, i.e., the late Victorian or ...
The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...
's'' "20 Under 40" writers to watch.
* Marghanita Laski (1915–1988), journalist, radio panellist and novelist
* Margaret Leigh (1894–1973), writer who lived extensively in Scotland and wrote about life in
crofting
Crofting (Scottish Gaelic: ') is a form of land tenure and small-scale food production peculiar to the Scottish Highlands, the islands of Scotland, and formerly on the Isle of Man. Within the 19th-century townships, individual crofts were est ...
James Tait Black Memorial Prize
The James Tait Black Memorial Prizes are literary prizes awarded for literature written in the English language. They, along with the Hawthornden Prize, are Britain's oldest literary awards. Based at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, Un ...
Iris Murdoch
Dame Jean Iris Murdoch ( ; 15 July 1919 – 8 February 1999) was an Irish and British novelist and philosopher. Murdoch is best known for her novels about good and evil, sexual relationships, morality, and the power of the unconscious. Her fi ...
DBE (1919–1999), novelist and philosopher born in Ireland; twelfth on a list of ''The 50 greatest British writers since 1945'' and winner of the
Booker Prize
The Booker Prize, formerly the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a prestigious literary award conferred each year for the best single work of sustained fiction written in the English language, wh ...
Modern Library 100 Best Novels
Modern Library's 100 Best Novels is a 1998 list of the best English-language novels published during the 20th century, as selected by the American publishing imprint, Modern Library, from among 400 novels published by Random House, which owns Mod ...
* Kathleen Nott FRSL (1905–1999), poet, novelist, critic, philosopher and editor
* Christine Orr (1899–1963), Scottish novelist, playwright, poet, actor, theatre director and broadcaster; one of the "uninvited eight" instrumental in the founding of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe; one of only three women making a salary over £500 at the BBC before WWII
* Inez Pearn (1913–1976), novelist
*Hilda Stewart Reid (1898–1982), novelist and historian
*Michèle Roberts (1949), novelist and poet; shortlisted for the
Booker Prize
The Booker Prize, formerly the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a prestigious literary award conferred each year for the best single work of sustained fiction written in the English language, wh ...
and Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
*Constance Savery (1897–1999), author of novels and children's books
* Dorothy L. Sayers (1893–1957), crime writer, poet and playwright; creator of Lord Peter Wimsey; translated Dante's ''Divine Comedy''
*Neil Spring (1981), Welsh novelist of supernatural horror, known for his bestselling book ''The Ghost Hunters'' (2013)
*Hilary Spurling CBE FRSL (1940), writer, journalist and biographer; winner of the Whitbread Prize
*Alexander Starritt (1985), Scottish-German novelist, journalist and entrepreneur
*Clara Linklater Thomson (1867-1934), writer, editor, and educator
*Sylvia Thompson (1902–1968), novelist, writer and public speaker
*Doreen Wallace (1897–1989), novelist, grammar school teacher and social campaigner
*Laura Wilson (writer), Laura Wilson (1964), crime-writer; winner of the Prix du Polar Européen and CWA Historical Dagger and shortlisted for the Gold Dagger
*Elizabeth Young, Baroness Kennet (1923–2014), writer, researcher, poet, artist, campaigner, analyst and questioning commentator
Booker Prize
The Booker Prize, formerly the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a prestigious literary award conferred each year for the best single work of sustained fiction written in the English language, wh ...
and
Lost Man Booker Prize
The Lost Man Booker Prize was a special edition of the Man Booker Prize awarded by a public vote in 2010 to a novel from 1970 as the books published in 1970 were not eligible for the Man Booker Prize due to a rules alteration; until 1970 the priz ...
; one of very few to serve both as a Booker judge and make a Booker shortlist as an author; winner of the Guardian Prize and Phoenix Award
* Lucy M. Boston (1892–1990), novelist who wrote for children and adults; best known for her " Green Knowe" series; winner of the Carnegie Medal
*Kathryn Cave (1948–2021), hildren's book author; awarded the first international UNESCO prize for Children's and Young People's Literature in the Service of Tolerance for ''Something Else (book), Something Else''
*Pauline Clarke (1921–2013), author who wrote for younger children; best known for her ''The Twelve and the Genii''; winner of the Carnegie Medal, Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis and Lewis Carroll Shelf Award
*Olivia Coolidge (1908–2006), British-born American children's writer and educator; runner-up for the Newbery Medal
* Susan Cooper (1935), author of children's books including ''The Dark Is Rising''; winner of the Newbery Medal and Margaret A. Edwards Award; first woman to edit the Oxford undergraduate newspaper ''Cherwell (newspaper), Cherwell''
*Gillian Cross (1945), author of children's books; winner of the Carnegie Medal and Costa Book Award; author of ''The Demon Headmaster''
* Gertrude Minnie Faulding (1875–1961), novelist and children's writer
*Frances Hardinge (1973), children's writer; author of ''Fly by Night (Hardinge novel), Fly by Night'' and ''The Lie Tree''; winner of the Branford Boase Award and Costa Book Award
*Clare Mallory (1913–1991), children's writer from
New Zealand
New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...
*Constance Savery (1897–1999), author of novels and children's books
*Ann Schlee FRSL (1934), novelist and children's writer; winner of the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, shortlisted for the
Booker Prize
The Booker Prize, formerly the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a prestigious literary award conferred each year for the best single work of sustained fiction written in the English language, wh ...
and runner up for the Carnegie Medal
*Matthew Skelton (1971), English Canadian writer; author of ''Endymion Spring''
*Jenifer Wayne (1917–1982), author of children's literature
Playwrights
*Marcy Kahan, Canadian-American playwright and radio dramatist; winner of the Edinburgh Comedy Award and a Silver Radio Academy Award
* Margaret Kennedy (1896–1967), novelist and playwright; author of '' The Constant Nymph''
* Nemone Lethbridge (1932), barrister and playwright; one of Britain's first female barristers and the first woman at Hare Court
*Christine Longford, Countess of Longford (1900–1980), playwright; wife of Edward Pakenham, 6th Earl of Longford
* Christabel Marshall (1871–1960), LGBT campaigner for women's suffrage; playwright and author
*Peter Morris (playwright), Peter Morris (1973), American playwright; writer of ''Guardians (play), Guardians''
*Ella Road (1991), screenwriter, playwright and actor, best known for her stage-play ''The Phlebotomist''
Poets
*Audrey Beecham (1915–1989), poet, teacher and historian, niece of Thomas Beecham, the composer; Maurice Bowra, Warden of Wadham College, Oxford, Wadham and List of Vice-Chancellors of the University of Oxford, Vice-Chancellor of Oxford was engaged to her
*Catherine Byron (1947), Irish poet who often collaborates with visual and sound artists
*Viola Garvin (1898–1969), poet and literary editor at ''
The Observer
''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. First published in 1791, it is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.
In 1993 it was acquired by Guardian Media Group Limited, and operated as a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' ...
''; Robert E. Howard used lines from her "The House of Cæsar" for his suicide note
* Judith Kazantzis (1940–2018), poet and political and social activist; daughter of Frank Pakenham, 7th Earl of Longford, Lord and Elizabeth Pakenham, Countess of Longford, Lady Longford
*May Kendall (1861–1943), poet, novelist, and satirist
*Mairi MacInnes (1925-2017), poet
*Aaron Maniam (1979), award-winning poet and civil servant
*Elma Mitchell (1919–2000), poet; winner of the Cholmondeley Award
*Denise Riley (1948), poet and philosopher; winner of the Forward Prizes for Poetry, Forward Poetry Prize
*Nesca Robb FRSL (1905–1976), Irish poet, writer and historian scholar; member of the Maatschappij der Nederlandse Letterkunde
*E. J. Scovell (1907–1999), poet
*Margaret Stanley-Wrench (1916–1974), poet and novelist
*Kim Taplin (1943), poet and non-fiction writer
*Helen Waddell (1889–1965), Irish poet, translator and playwright; winner of the Benson Medal
*Val Warner (1946-2020), poet, editor and translator who was best known for helping to increase the salience of poet Charlotte Mew's work, received the Eric Gregory Award
Business & finance people
*Marjorie Abbatt (1899–1991), toy maker and businesswoman; President of the International Council for Children's Play
*Goga Ashkenazi (1980), Kazakhs, Kazakh businesswoman and socialite; head of Vionnet (company), Vionnet
* Margaret Casely-Hayford (1959), lawyer and businesswoman; chairs the board of Shakespeare's Globe; former chair of ActionAid; first female Chancellor of
Coventry University
Coventry University is a Public university, public research university in Coventry, England. The origins of Coventry University can be linked to the Coventry School of Art and Design, Coventry School of Design in 1843. It was known as Lancheste ...
; first black woman to be Partner in a
City
A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...
law firm
*Angela Dean (trustee), Angela Dean, banker and trustee; one of the '100 women to watch' in the Female FTSE Board Report in 2013 and 2014; managing director of Morgan Stanley; Chair of the International House London
*Cindy Gallop (1960), advertising consultant, founder and former chair of the US branch of advertising firm Bartle Bogle Hegarty; founder of the IfWeRanTheWorld and MakeLoveNotPorn companies
*Suzanne Heywood (1969), executive and former civil servant; chair of CNH Industrial
*Afua Kyei, British financial executive and the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of the Bank of England; included as one of the most influential black people in the UK on the 2024 ''Powerlist''; in 2023 listed among the 100 most reputable Africans
*Catherine Powell (1967), businesswoman, President of the Disney Parks, Western Region, where she oversees Disneyland, Walt Disney World, and Disneyland Paris
* Shriti Vadera, Baroness Vadera PC (1962), investment banker and politician; government minister and Chairwoman of Santander UK; first woman to head a major British bank; first woman and first person of colour to chair the
Royal Shakespeare Company
The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs over 1,000 staff and opens around 20 productions a year. The RSC plays regularly in London, Stratf ...
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...
's first woman career diplomat and ambassador
*Alyson Bailes CMG (1949–2016), diplomat, political scientist, academic and polyglot
*Gill Bennett, Chief Historian of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office between 1995 and 2005
*Dame Gillian Brown DCVO CMG (1923–1999), diplomat; second woman to be a British ambassador
*Dame Mary Keegan DBE (1953), accountant and civil servant; chair of the Financial Reporting Council; first female audit partner at
PwC
PricewaterhouseCoopers, also known as PwC, is a Multinational corporation, multinational professional services network based in London, United Kingdom.
It is the second-largest professional services network in the world and is one of the Big Fo ...
*Dame Alix Kilroy DBE (1903–1999), one of the first two women to have entered the administrative grade of the civil service by examination (in 1925); founding member of the SDP
*Emily Maltman, British Ambassador to the Democratic Republic of Congo
*Aaron Maniam (1979), award-winning poet and civil servant
*Dame Rosalind Marsden DCMG (1950), diplomat and public servant; Ambassador and European Union Special Representative, EUSR of Sudan
*Dame Anne Mueller DCB (1930–2000), civil servant and academic; first woman to become a Permanent Secretary at
HM Treasury
His Majesty's Treasury (HM Treasury or HMT), and informally referred to as the Treasury, is the Government of the United Kingdom’s economic and finance ministry. The Treasury is responsible for public spending, financial services policy, Tax ...
; Chancellor of De Montfort University
*Nozipho Mxakato-Diseko (1956), South African diplomat, currently the Permanent Representative to the United Nations, United Nations Ambassador for South Africa; for the Paris Agreement she was the leader of the Group of 77, G77 bloc during negotiations
* Adelaide Plumptre (1874–1948), Canadian activist, diplomat, and municipal politician in
Toronto
Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...
First woman elected chair of the
Canadian Red Cross
The Canadian Red Cross Society ()Toronto Board of Education; first woman to sit in the Toronto Board of Control
*Jill Rutter, civil servant
*Catherine Royle (1963), British Ambassador; Principal of Somerville College
*Dame Evelyn Sharp, Baroness Sharp GBE (1903–1985), civil servant; first woman to hold the position of Permanent Secretary
*Emma Sky OBE (1968), expert on the Middle East; political advisor to General Ray Odierno
*Ruth Thompson (civil servant), Ruth Thompson (1953–2016), civil servant; director of finance of Higher Education at the Department for Education and Skills (United Kingdom), DES
*Dame Anne Warburton DCVO CMG (1927–2015), diplomat; first female British ambassador; President of Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge
*Carrie Yau (1955), Hong Kong government official; executive director of the Vocational Training Council
Education
*Jane Aaron (educator), Jane Aaron (1951), Welsh educator, literary researcher and writer
*Marian Gertrude Beard (1885–1958), Irish-born educator and translator; headmistress of Putney High School
* Lalage Bown (1927), educator; first organizing secretary of the International Congress of Africanists; first woman to receive the William Pearson Tolley Award from
Syracuse University
Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York, United States. It was established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church but has been nonsectarian since 1920 ...
*Alice Bruce (1867–1951), educator and school administrator; long serving staff member of Somerville Hall and President of Aberdare Hall in Cardiff
* Hilda Cashmore (1876-1943), a Quaker who founded the Bristol University Settlement and was its first warden
*Dame Elan Closs Stephens DBE (1948), Welsh educator and the Wales representative on the BBC Board
*Agnes de SelincourtJane Haggis, Margaret Allen (Spring 2008) Imperial emotions: affective communities of mission in British Protestant women's missionary publications c1880–1920. Journal of Social History 41(3) 691–716 (1872–1917), Christians, Christian missionary in
India
India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
, responsible for the founding of missions; first Principal of Lady Muir Memorial College, Allahabad, India; Principal of Westfield College, London
*Donalda Dickie (1883–1972), Canadian normal school teacher; winner of the Governor General's Award for English-language children's literature
*Flora Forster (1896–1981), Welsh educator and author
*Ethel Hurlbatt (1866–1934), Principal of Bedford College, London, Bedford College, London; first President of Aberdare Hall in Cardiff; later Warden of Royal Victoria College, the women's college of
McGill University
McGill University (French: Université McGill) is an English-language public research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill University, Vol. I. For the Advancement of Learning, ...
, in Montreal, Canada
*Julia Huxley (1862–1908), founded Prior's Field School for girls; the game word ladder was devised for her
*Dame Tamsyn Imison DBE (1937–2017), educator and "educational strategist"; headteacher of the Hampstead School
*Sonia Jackson (academic), Sonia Jackson OBE (1934), Emeritus Professor at the UCL Institute of Education; specialised in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC)
*Lettice Jowitt (1878–1962), educationist and refugee worker; pioneer in the settlement movement
*Jane Kirkaldy (1869–1932), science educator at various schools in Oxford for 36 years; one of the first women to obtain first-class honors in the natural sciences; contributed greatly to the education of the generation of English women scientists
*Edith Marvin (1872–1958), inspector of schools
*Winifred Mercier OBE (1878-1934), principal of Whitelands College and advocate of co-educational classes
* Michele Moody-Adams, philosopher; first female and first African-American dean of
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...
*Dame Anne Mueller DCB (1930–2000), civil servant and academic; first woman to become a Permanent Secretary at
HM Treasury
His Majesty's Treasury (HM Treasury or HMT), and informally referred to as the Treasury, is the Government of the United Kingdom’s economic and finance ministry. The Treasury is responsible for public spending, financial services policy, Tax ...
; Chancellor of De Montfort University
*Elisabeth Murray FRHistS FSA (1909–1998), English biographer and educationist
* Hilda D. Oakeley (1867–1950), philosopher, educationalist and author; first Warden of the new Royal Victoria College; first woman to deliver McGill's annual university lecture
* May Staveley (1863–1934), first warden of Bristol's women's university settlement ( Clifton Hill House); head of the women's hall of residence at Liverpool University; president of the Bristol branch of the International Federation of University Women
*Mary Sturt (1896-1993), educational psychologist and historian of education
* Jean Wilks (1917–2014), headmistress at The Hertfordshire and Essex High School and King Edward VI High School for Girls; first female Pro-Chancellor of
Birmingham University
The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university in Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingham (founded in 1825 as ...
*Olive Willis (1877–1964), educationist and headmistress; founded Downe House School and was its head
Oxbridge heads of houses
*Mary Bennett (academic), Mary Bennett (1913–2005), academic and Principal of St Hilda's College, Oxford; daughter of H. A. L. Fisher and Lettice Fisher
*Dame
Averil Cameron
Dame Averil Millicent Cameron ( Sutton; born 8 February 1940), often cited as A. M. Cameron, is a British historian. She writes on Late Antiquity, Classics, and Byzantine Studies. She was Professor of Late Antiquity, Late Antique and Byzantine ...
DBE FSA FBA FRHistS (1940), professor emerita of Late Antique and Byzantine History; former Warden of Keble College, Oxford; second woman to receive the
Kenyon Medal
The Kenyon Medal is awarded every two years by the British Academy 'in recognition of work in the field of classical studies and archaeology'. The medal was endowed by Sir Frederic Kenyon and was first awarded in 1957.
List of recipients
SourceB ...
*Elizabeth Millicent Chilver (1914–2014), Principal of Bedford College, London, Bedford College, London and Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford
*Barbara Craig (1915–2005), archaeologist, classicist; Principal of Somerville College
* Helen Darbishire CBE FBA (1881–1961), literary scholar and Principal of Somerville College
*Margery Fry (1874–1958), prison reformer; one of the first women to become a magistrate; Secretary of the Howard League for Penal Reform; Principal of Somerville College
*Grace Eleanor Hadow OBE (1875–1940), author, principal of what would become St Anne's College, Oxford, and vice-chairman of the Women's Institute
*Dame Kathleen Kenyon DBE (1906–1978), leading archaeologist of Neolithic culture in the Fertile Crescent, best known for her excavations of Jericho; has been called one of the most influential archaeologists of the 20th century; refined the Wheeler-Kenyon method; Principal of St Hugh's College, Oxford
*Julia de Lacy Mann (1891–1985), economic historian and Principal of St Hilda's College, Oxford
* Onora O'Neill, Baroness O'Neill of Bengarve CH CBE FRS FBA FMedSci (1941), philosopher; first female winner of the Berggruen Prize; crossbench member of the House of Lords; Principal of Newnham College, Cambridge
* Daphne Park, Baroness Park of Monmouth CMG OBE FRSA (1921–2010), spy, clandestine senior controller in MI6; Principal of Somerville College
*Dame Emily Penrose DBE (1858–1942), Principal of Royal Holloway College, Bedford College, London, Bedford College and Somerville College; first woman to gain a First in Greats (Classics) at Oxford
* Alice Prochaska FRHistS (1947), former archivist and librarian; Principal of Somerville College
* Evelyn Procter FRHistS (1897–1980), historian and academic; Principal of St Hugh's College, Oxford; first female scholar to be admitted to the National Historical Archive of Spain and the
Biblioteca Nacional de España
The (National Library of Spain) is the national library of Spain. It is the largest public library in the country, and one of the largest in the world. Founded in 1711, it is an autonomous agency attached to the Ministry of Culture since 1 ...
*Catherine Royle (1963), diplomat and ambassador; Principal of Somerville College
*Dame Lucy Sutherland DBE FBA FRSA (1903–1980), Australian-born historian and head of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford
*Dame Janet Vaughan DBE FRS (1899–1993), physiologist, academic and Principal of Somerville College; one of the first doctors to enter Bergen-Belsen concentration camp after the liberation
*Dame Anne Warburton DCVO CMG (1927–2015), diplomat; first female British ambassador; President of Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge
Fictional
*Gwen Stacy from ''Spider-Man'' went to Somerville to study medicine in ''The Amazing Spider-Man 2''.
*Harriet Vane from ''Gaudy Night'', studied English. Undergraduate at Shrewsbury College, based on Dorothy L. Sayers' own Somerville College.
*The wife of Master Keaton studied mathematics.
*Mary, Marie, Margaret and Myfanwy from Philip Larkin, Larkin's ''Michaelmas Term at St Bride's''
*Grace Ritchie, the protagonist in ''Slave of the Passion'' by Deirdre Wilson
*Helena Warner from ''A Likeness in Stone'' by Julia Wallis Martin, was a student of Somerville.
Film and theatre
*Daphne Alexander, Cypriot/British actress best known for playing Nadia Talianos in the BBC Drama series ''Casualty (TV series), Casualty'' and Modesty Blaise in three Modesty Blaise#Audio, BBC radio adaptations
*Lucinda Coxon (1962), playwright and screenwriter
*Lucienne Hill (1923–2012), French-English translator and actor; winner of the Evening Standard Theatre Award and Tony Award
*Penelope Houston (film critic), Penelope Houston (1927–2015), film critic and journal editor; edited ''Sight & Sound'' for almost 35 years
*Calam Lynch (1994), actor of Irish descent, his films include the Disney adaptation of ''Black Beauty (2020 film), Black Beauty'' (2020) and Terence Davies' ''Benediction (film), Benediction'' (2021); on television, he appeared in the BBC One drama ''Mrs Wilson (TV series), Mrs Wilson'' (2018) and the second season of the Netflix series ''Bridgerton'' (2022)
*Adrian Politowski (1978), a BAFTA-nominated Swedish film producer, fund manager, and entrepreneur
*Martin Desmond Roe, British-American film and television director, writer and producer, best known for ''Buzkashi Boys'' (nominated for an Oscar); nominee for the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film, Oscar for Best Live Action Short Film for ''Two Distant Strangers'' (2020) at the 93rd Academy Awards
*Tessa Ross CBE (1961), film producer and executive; received the BAFTA Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema Award and was named as one of the 100 most powerful women in the United Kingdom by ''Woman's Hour'' in 2013; executive producer of ''12 Years a Slave (film), 12 Years a Slave'', ''127 Hours'', ''Billy Elliot'' and ''Ex Machina (film), Ex Machina''
*
Moon Moon Sen
Moon Moon Sen, also credited as Moonmoon Sen (born Srimati Sen; 28 March 1954), is an Indian actress, known for her works in Hindi, Bengali, Malayalam, Kannada, Telugu, Tamil, and Marathi films. She eventually starred in Bollywood films. S ...
(1954), Indian Bollywood film actress; winner of the Nandi Award for Best Supporting Actress and Kalakar Award for Best Actress
Health professionals
* Margery Abrahams (1896-1983), dietitian who helped organise the Kindertransport scheme to rescue children from the Holocaust; first chairperson of the
British Dietetic Association
The British Dietetic Association (BDA) is a trade union for dietitians in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1936 and became a certified union in 1982. It is affiliated to the Trades Union Congress and the Scottish Trades Union Congress.
H ...
*Heather Ashton FRCP (1929–2019), psychopharmacology, psychopharmacologist and physician best known for her clinical and research work on benzodiazepine dependence, benzodiazepene dependence
* Carys Bannister OBE (1935–2010), first female
neurosurgeon
Neurosurgery or neurological surgery, known in common parlance as brain surgery, is the medical specialty that focuses on the surgical treatment or rehabilitation of disorders which affect any portion of the nervous system including the brain, ...
in the United Kingdom
* Farah Bhatti OBE, cardiac surgeon and professor; Chair of the
Royal College of Surgeons of England
The Royal College of Surgeons of England (RCS England) is an independent professional body and registered charity that promotes and advances standards of surgery, surgical care for patients, and regulates surgery and dentistry in England and Wa ...
Women in Surgery Forum; first British woman of Pakistani origins to be made a cardiac surgeon in the United Kingdom
*Lady Eileen Crofton MBE (1919–2010), physician and author; best known for her anti-smoking campaigns
* Jean Ginsburg (1926–2004), physician and physiologist; first woman to graduate from St Mary's Hospital Medical School
*Sylvia Gyde (1936-2024), public health doctor, medical researcher and National Health Service administrator
* Christine Lee, medical researcher; first female scholar of the
Oxford University Medical School
Oxford University School of Medicine & Biomedical Sciences is the medical school of the University of Oxford in the city of Oxford, England. It is a component of the Medical Sciences Division, University of Oxford, Medical Sciences Division, an ...
* Leah Lowenstein (1930–1984), American nephrology, nephrologist and academic administrator; first woman dean of a co-education medical school in the United States
* Dorothea Maude (1879–1959), physician and surgeon; first woman general practitioner in Oxford
*Helen Muir CBE FRS (1920–2005), rheumatologist; best known for pioneering work into the causes of osteoarthritis
*June Raine CBE FRCP (1952), Chief Executive of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), at the time when the MHRA was the first regulator to approve an mRNA vaccine for use in humans, and the first Western regulator to approve a COVID-19 vaccine
*Dame Janet Vaughan DBE FRS (1899–1993), physiologist, academic and Principal of Somerville College; one of the first doctors to enter Bergen-Belsen concentration camp after the liberation
*Wisia Wedzicha FMedSci, physician and Professor of Respiratory Medicine, winner of the Helmholtz International Fellow Award
* Marcia Wilkinson FRCP (1919–2013), neurology, neurologist; made a significant contribution to the understanding and surgical treatment of carpal tunnel syndrome; established a physical medicine and rehabilitation, rehabilitation unit for disabled young people; first recipient of the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Award
*Maggie Eisner (1947–2022), British general practitioner
*Cicely Williams OM Jamaica, CMG, FRCP (1893–1992), Jamaican physician, most notable for her discovery and research into kwashiorkor
Journalism
*Rose George, journalist and author of ''The Big Necessity''
* Evelyn Irons (1900–2000), Scottish journalist, first female
war correspondent
A war correspondent is a journalist who covers stories first-hand from a war, war zone.
War correspondence stands as one of journalism's most important and impactful forms. War correspondents operate in the most conflict-ridden parts of the wor ...
to be decorated with the French
Croix de Guerre
The (, ''Cross of War'') is a military decoration of France. It was first created in 1915 and consists of a square-cross medal on two crossed swords, hanging from a ribbon with various degree pins. The decoration was first awarded during World ...
; first journalist to reach certain
WWII
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
war zones; first female Stanhope Medal recipient
* Marghanita Laski (1915–1988), journalist, radio panellist and novelist
*Ty McCormick, American author, editor, and foreign correspondent
*Dilys Powell CBE (1901–1995), journalist who wrote for ''The Sunday Times''
*Anne Scott-James, Lady Lancaster (1913–2009), journalist and author; one of Britain's first women career journalists, editors and columnists
*Alexander Starritt (1985), Scottish-German novelist, journalist and entrepreneur
*Auriol Stevens (1940), journalist, and former editor of the ''Times Higher Education Supplement''
*Rachel Sylvester (1969), political journalist who writes for ''The Times''; 2015's Political Journalist of the Year at the British Press Awards and 2016 Journalist of the Year by the Political Studies Association
*Daniel Tudor (journalist), Daniel Tudor, author, journalist and entrepreneur
*Duncan Weldon (journalist), Duncan Weldon (1982), journalist, former political advisor, researcher, and market strategist
*Kati Whitaker, BBC and independent radio and TV journalist
*Audrey Withers OBE (1905–2001), journalist; edited ''Vogue (British magazine), Vogue''
Historians
* Bolanle Awe (1933), Nigerian and Yoruba people, Yoruba history professor; became the Pro-Chancellor of the University of Nigeria and has been called a Nigerian "intellectual hero"; first female academic staff in a Nigerian university and first chairperson of the National Commission for Women (Nigeria)
*Irena Backus, Polish historian
*Jane Caplan (1945), historian specialising in Nazi Germany and the history of the documentation of individual identity; helped establish one of Britain's first courses in Women's Studies
*Muriel St. Clare Byrne (1895–1983), historical researcher, specializing in the Tudor period and the reign of Henry VIII
*Catherine Glyn Davies (1926–2007), Welsh history of philosophy, historian of philosophy and linguistics; translator
*Claire Donovan FSA RA FRHistS (1948–2019), historian and academic
*Bonnie Effros FRHistS, Chaddock Chair of Economic and Social History at the University of Liverpool
*Dorothea Ewart (1870-1956), historian and author of books on Italian history
* Kathleen Fitzpatrick AO (1905–1990), Australian academic and historian; first associate professor in Australia outside the
natural science
Natural science or empirical science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer ...
s
*Eluned Garmon Jones (1897–1979), Welsh local historian
* Rose Graham (1875–1963), religious historian and first female President of the
British Archaeological Association
The British Archaeological Association (BAA) was founded in 1843 and aims to inspire, support and disseminate high quality research in the fields of Western archaeology, art and architecture, primarily of the mediaeval period, through lectures, co ...
; her early work on ecclesiastical history is seen as a great foundation for later scholarship on women's history
*Alice Greenwood (1862–1935), historian, teacher and writer; second headteacher of Withington Girls' School
*Narayani Gupta (1942), Indian historian, author, and professor on urban history and cultural heritage
* Agnes Headlam-Morley (1902–1986), historian and academic; first woman to be appointed to a chair at Oxford
* Carole Hillenbrand CBE FBA FRAS FRSE FRHistSoc (1943), Emerita Professor in Islamic History; first non-
Muslim
Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...
to be awarded the King Faisal International Prize for Islamic Studies
*Philippa Mary Hoskin, historian of the English Middle Ages, who specializes in the religious, legal and administrative history of the English Church; first Professor of Medieval Studies at the University of Lincoln
*M. D. R. Leys (1890–1967), historian and academic
* Doris Ketelbey FRHistS (1896–1990), historian and academic; sister to composer Albert Ketelbey
*Amélie Kuhrt (1944-2023), historian and specialist in the history of the ancient Near East
*Julia de Lacy Mann (1891–1985), economic historian and Principal of St Hilda's College, Oxford
*Margaret Mann Phillips (1906–1987), academic who specialized in Renaissance literature and history
*Phoebe Pool (1913–1971), art historian and spy for the Soviet Union
*Edna Purdie (1894-1968), Emeritus Professor of German studies at the University of London
*Mary Caroline Moorman (1905–1994), historian and biographer; daughter of G. M. Trevelyan; winner of the
James Tait Black Memorial Prize
The James Tait Black Memorial Prizes are literary prizes awarded for literature written in the English language. They, along with the Hawthornden Prize, are Britain's oldest literary awards. Based at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, Un ...
*Jane Robinson (historian), Jane Robinson (1959), social historian specialising in the study of women pioneers in various fields
*Emma Georgina Rothschild CMG (1948), economic historian and professor of history at Harvard University; wife of
Nobel laureate
The Nobel Prizes (, ) are awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Swedish Academy, the Karolinska Institutet, and the Norwegian Nobel Committee to individuals and organizations who make outstanding contributions in th ...
Amartya Sen; member of the Rothschild family
*Zuzanna Shonfield (1919–2000), Polish-born British historian and writer
*Nancy Stepan, focuses on the history of science in Latin America
*Kate Williams (historian), Kate Williams (1978), author, historian and television presenter
*Clair Wills FBA HonMRIA, academic specialising in 20th-century British and Irish cultural history and literature; recipient of the Hessell-Tiltman Prize
*Mary Woodall (1901–1988), art historian, museum director, and Thomas Gainsborough scholar
Classicists and archaeologists
* Caroline Alexander (1956), American author and classicist; first woman to publish a full-length English translation of
Homer
Homer (; , ; possibly born ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Despite doubts about his autho ...
's
Iliad
The ''Iliad'' (; , ; ) is one of two major Ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the ''Odyssey'', the poem is divided into 24 books and ...
*Polymnia Athanassiadi, Greece, Greek Professor Emerita in Late Antique History
*Dame
Averil Cameron
Dame Averil Millicent Cameron ( Sutton; born 8 February 1940), often cited as A. M. Cameron, is a British historian. She writes on Late Antiquity, Classics, and Byzantine Studies. She was Professor of Late Antiquity, Late Antique and Byzantine ...
DBE FSA FBA FRHistS (1940), professor emerita of Late Antique and Byzantine History; former Warden of Keble College, Oxford; second woman to receive the
Kenyon Medal
The Kenyon Medal is awarded every two years by the British Academy 'in recognition of work in the field of classical studies and archaeology'. The medal was endowed by Sir Frederic Kenyon and was first awarded in 1957.
List of recipients
SourceB ...
*Dorothy Charlesworth FSA (1927–1981), classical archaeology, Roman archaeologist and glass specialist; served as Inspector of Ancient Monuments
*Gillian Clark (historian), Gillian Clark FBA, Emeritus Professor of Classics and Ancient History
*Barbara Craig (1915–2005), archaeologist, classicist; Principal of Somerville College
*A. M. Dale FBA (1901–1967), classicist and academic
*Claudine Dauphin FSA (1950), French archaeologist specialising in the Byzantine period
*Elaine Fantham (1933–2016), British-Canadian classicist; President of the American Philological Association
*Miriam T. Griffin (1935–2018), American classical scholar; held the first ''Women in Classics'' dinner (at Somerville College)
*Jill Harries, Emeritus Professor in Ancient History, known for her work on late antiquity
*Isobel Henderson (1906–1967), ancient historian; one of the first woman tutors to be allowed to join Oxford's 'Ancient History Dinners'
*Margaret Hubbard (1924–2011), Australian-born British classical scholar specialising in philology; described as "one of the most distinguished classical scholars of the modern age"; one of St Anne's College, Oxford, St Anne's College's 15 founding fellows
*Helen Hughes-Brock (1938), Minoan civilization, Minoan and Mycenaean Greece, Mycenaean archaeologist
*Sarah C. Humphreys, classical scholar
*Dame Kathleen Kenyon DBE (1906–1978), leading archaeologist of Neolithic culture in the Fertile Crescent, best known for her excavations of Jericho; has been called one of the most influential archaeologists of the 20th century; refined the Wheeler-Kenyon method; Principal of St Hugh's College, Oxford
*Donna Carol Kurtz (1943), American classicist specializing in Greek art; first John Beazley, Beazley Archivist at the Ashmolean Museum
*Maria Millington Lathbury (1856-1944), classical scholar, archaeologist and numismatist; mother-in-law of Arthur Evans
*Irene Lemos FSA, classical archaeologist specialising in the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age of Ancient Greece, Greece
*Tessa Rajak (1946), ancient historian, primarily focused on Judaism in the Hellenistic period, Hellenistic and Roman periods; expert on the writings of Josephus
* Joyce Reynolds FBA (1918–2022), classicist and academic, specialising in Ancient Rome, Roman historical epigraphy; first woman awarded the
Kenyon Medal
The Kenyon Medal is awarded every two years by the British Academy 'in recognition of work in the field of classical studies and archaeology'. The medal was endowed by Sir Frederic Kenyon and was first awarded in 1957.
List of recipients
SourceB ...
*Christina Riggs, American historian, museum curator, and academic; specialises in the history of archaeology, photography, and ancient Egyptian art
* Katherine Routledge (1866–1935), archaeologist and anthropologist who initiated the first true survey of
Easter Island
Easter Island (, ; , ) is an island and special territory of Chile in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeasternmost point of the Polynesian Triangle in Oceania. The island is renowned for its nearly 1,000 extant monumental statues, ...
(leader of the Mana Expedition to Easter Island, Mana Expedition)
*Susan Sherratt (1949), archaeologist of Bronze Age Greece, Cyprus, and the eastern Mediterranean
*Maria Stamatopoulou, Greece, Greek classical archaeologist specialising in Central Greece (geographic region), Central Greece, and Thessaly in particular
* Margerie Venables Taylor (1881–1963), archaeologist and editor of the ''Journal of Roman Studies''; held posts including Secretary for the Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies
*Vivian Wade-Gery (1897–1988), classical archaeologist
* Audrey Williams FSA (1902–1978), Welsh archaeologist; first woman president of the Royal Institution of South Wales
*Katharine Woolley (1888–1945), archaeologist who worked principally at the Mesopotamian site of Ur; married to archaeologist Sir Leonard Woolley; inspiration for the murder victim in the novel ''Murder in Mesopotamia'' by Agatha Christie
*Maria Wyke (1957), professor of Latin at University College London, UCL
Medievalists
*Caroline Barron OBE (1940), medieval historian; granddaughter of David George Hogarth
*Margaret Clunies Ross (1942), medievalist; main research areas are Old Norse-Icelandic studies
*Ursula Dronke (1920–2012), medievalist and former Vigfússon Reader in Old Norse in Oxford
*Antonia Gransden (1928/29–2020), historian and medievalist
*Judith Green (historian), Judith Green (1961), medieval historian, specialising in Anglo-Norman England
*Elspeth Kennedy FSA (1921–2006), academic, prominent medievalist
*Clare Kirchberger, Anglican nun and medievalist who edited and translated several works of Christian mysticism
*May McKisack (1900–1981), medieval historian
* Mildred Pope (1872–1956), scholar of Anglo-Norman England; first woman to hold a readership at Oxford University; the character Miss Lydgate in Dorothy L. Sayers, Sayers' ''Gaudy Night'' (1935) is based on Pope
* Evelyn Procter FRHistS (1897–1980), historian and academic; served as principal of St Hugh's College, Oxford; first female scholar to be admitted to the National Historical Archive of Spain and the
Biblioteca Nacional de España
The (National Library of Spain) is the national library of Spain. It is the largest public library in the country, and one of the largest in the world. Founded in 1711, it is an autonomous agency attached to the Ministry of Culture since 1 ...
*Margaret Twycross FSA, historian specialising in medieval theatre and iconography
*Teresa Webber FSA FRHistS FBA, palaeography, palaeographer and medievalist
Law
* Margaret Casely-Hayford (1959), lawyer and businesswoman; chair of the board of Shakespeare's Globe; former chair of ActionAid
*Elisabeth Jones, Welsh lawyer who served as the Counsel General for Wales, Counsel General-designate for Wales
* Laeticia Kikonyogo (1940–2017), Ugandan lawyer and judge; rated the 6th most powerful person in Ugandan public life; first woman magistrate Grade I; first woman Chief Magistrate; first woman to be appointed High Court of Uganda, High Court judge; first woman Deputy Chief Justice of Uganda; one of the first ever women papal knights in the history of the Catholic Church in Africa
* Akua Kuenyehia (1947), Ghanaian lawyer; one of the only three female African judges at the International Criminal Court; first First Vice-president of that court
* Nemone Lethbridge (1932), barrister and playwright; one of Britain's first female barristers and the first woman at Hare Court
*Anne M. Lofaso (1965), law professor
* Elizabeth Monk QC (1898-1980), Canadian lawyer and Montreal city councillor; one of the first two women admitted to the Quebec Bar and first Quebec woman to receive a
Queen's Counsel
A King's Counsel (Post-nominal letters, post-nominal initials KC) is a senior lawyer appointed by the monarch (or their Viceroy, viceregal representative) of some Commonwealth realms as a "Counsel learned in the law". When the reigning monarc ...
designation; recipient of the Governor General's Awards in Commemoration of the Persons Case, Governor General's Award in Commemoration of the Persons Case and Governor General's Academic Medal
*Ann Olivarius (1955), American-British lawyer and Rhodes Scholarship, Rhodes Scholar
*Dame Judith Parker DBE QC (1950), judge and barrister;
Queen's Counsel
A King's Counsel (Post-nominal letters, post-nominal initials KC) is a senior lawyer appointed by the monarch (or their Viceroy, viceregal representative) of some Commonwealth realms as a "Counsel learned in the law". When the reigning monarc ...
and Justice of the High Court of England and Wales
*Anna Poole, Lady Poole QC, Senator of the College of Justice in Scotland
* Cornelia Sorabji (1866–1954), first woman to practice law in
India
India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
and
Britain
Britain most often refers to:
* Great Britain, a large island comprising the countries of England, Scotland and Wales
* The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, a sovereign state in Europe comprising Great Britain and the north-eas ...
; first Indian national to study at any British university
*Amy Wax (1953), American lawyer and academic; winner of the Lindback Award
* Farhana Yamin (1965), lawyer, public speaker and climate activist
sociolinguistics
Sociolinguistics is the descriptive, scientific study of how language is shaped by, and used differently within, any given society. The field largely looks at how a language changes between distinct social groups, as well as how it varies unde ...
; Sawiris Cultural Award winner
*Janet Bately CBE FBA, academic and Professor Emeritus of English Language and Medieval Literature
*Catherine Belsey (1940–2021), literary critic and academic; author of ''The Subject of Tragedy''
*Sonia Bićanić OBE (1920–2017), literary academic, author and translator
*Sarah Bilston, author and professor of English literature
*Carmen Blacker FBA OST OBE (1924–2009), scholar of Japanese language
*Margaret Crum (1921-1986), scholar of English poetry and music, winner of the British Academy's Rose Mary Crawshay Prize
*Lady Norma Dalrymple-Champneys (1902–1997), scholar of English literature; winner of the Rose Mary Crawshay Prize
*Patricia Davies (codebreaker), Patricia Davies (1923), codebreaker who served as a special duties linguist in the Women’s Royal Naval Service during World War II; she was key in developing programmes such as University Challenge, The Sky at Night, and Ask the Family; recipient of the Victory Medal (United Kingdom), Victory Medal and the Legion of Honour
* Susie Dent (1964), lexicographer and etymologist; has appeared in "Dictionary Corner" on the Channel 4 game show ''Countdown (game show), Countdown'' since 1992
*Una Ellis-Fermor (1894–1958), literary critic, author; described as "a major contributor to the study of the English Renaissance"; Rose Mary Crawshay Prize winner
*Margery Fisher (1913–1992), literary critic and academic
*Janet Dean Fodor (1942–2023), psycholinguist
* Julia Gasper, independent academic specialising in historical literature; right-wing political activist affiliated with the English Democrats
*Sybil Goulding (fl. 1914–1931), literary critic and academic
*Lorna Hutson FBA (1958), ninth Merton Professor of English Literature
*Agnes Latham (1905–1996), academic, Professor of English at Bedford College, London, Bedford College
*Dominica Legge FBA (1905–1986), scholar of the Anglo-Norman language and founding member of the Anglo-Norman Text Society
*Anna Laura Lepschy (1933), Italian linguist; recipient of the Awards of the British Academy#Serena Medal, Serena Medal
*Joycelynne Loncke, Guyana, Guyanese academic and musicologist; areas of interest include French literature and the history of music
*Margaret Mann Phillips (1906–1987), academic who specialized in Renaissance literature and history
*Vivien Noakes FRSL (1937–2011), biographer, editor and critic
*Pamela Neville-Sington (1959-2017), American literary biographer and authority on the life and works of Fanny Trollope, Anthony Trollope, and Robert Browning
*Helen Peters (1942), Canadian scholar of English literature and a specialist in the theatre of Newfoundland; winner of the British Academy's Rose Mary Crawshay Prize
*Rebecca Posner (1929–2018), philologist, linguist and academic; specialized in Romance languages; President of the Philological Society
* Phoebe Sheavyn (1865-1968), literary scholar and feminist; a professor at
Victoria University of Manchester
The Victoria University of Manchester, usually referred to as simply the University of Manchester, was a university in Manchester, England. It was founded in 1851 as Owens College. In 1880, the college joined the federal Victoria University. A ...
and founding member of the British Federation of University Women
*Dorjana Širola (1972), Croatian quizzer, linguist and anglicist; highest placed woman at the World Quizzing Championship in seven years; winner of ''University Challenge'' for Somerville
*Emma Smith (scholar), Emma Smith, Professor of Shakespeare Studies
*Enid Starkie CBE (1897–1970), Irish literary critic known for her biographical works on French poets; Officer of the Legion of Honour
*Kathleen Mary Tillotson (1906–2001), academic and literary critic, professor of English and distinguished Victorian literature, Victorian scholar
*Joan Turville-Petre (1911–2006), noted academic in the field of Old English, Anglo-Saxon, Icelandic language, Icelandic and Scandinavian language studies
*Rosemond Tuve (1903–1964), American scholar of English literature, specializing in Renaissance literature, in particular Edmund Spenser
*David Willis (linguist), David Willis, linguist and Celticist; Jesus Professor of Celtic at the University of Oxford.
Music
*Harry Escott (1976), composer
*Sarah Ioannides (1972), Greek Cypriot-Scottish-Australian conductor and Fulbright Program, Fulbright Scholar
*Dame Emma Kirkby DBE (1949), soprano; one of the world's most renowned early music specialists; The Queen's Medal for Music winner
*Joycelynne Loncke, Guyana, Guyanese academic and musicologist; areas of interest include French literature and the history of music
*Grace-Evangeline Mason (1994), composer of contemporary classical music
*Elizabeth Norman McKay (1931–2018), musicologist, pianist and Lieder accompanist
*Jean Redcliffe-Maud, Baroness Redcliffe-Maude (1904–1993), pianist
Other
*Sunethra Bandaranaike (1943), Sri Lankan philanthropist and socialite; daughter of Prime Minister S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike
*Sheila Cassidy (1937), doctor and torture survivor who brought to the attention of the UK public the widespread human rights abuses that were occurring in Chile in the 1970s
*Eleanor Flexner (1908–1995), distinguished independent scholar and pioneer in what was to become the field of women's studies
*Flora Grierson (1899–1966), publisher and co-owner of Samson Press
*Amanda Harlech, Baroness Harlech (1959), fashion consultant; named to the International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame; wife of Francis Ormsby-Gore, 6th Baron Harlech
*Emily Georgiana Kemp (1860–1939), adventurer; donated the Somerville College Chapel
*Frances Lincoln (1945–2001), independent publisher of illustrated books; won a ''Woman of the Year'' award in 1995
*Sheila Lochhead (1910-1994), hostess, prison visitor and writer; daughter of UK Prime Minister
Ramsay MacDonald
James Ramsay MacDonald (; 12 October 18669 November 1937) was a British statesman and politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. The first two of his governments belonged to the Labour Party (UK), Labour Party, where he led ...
; chair of the National Association of Official Prison Visitors
*Henrietta Phipps (1931–2016), landscape gardener
*Helge Rubinstein, founder of Ben's Cookies
*Joan Shelmerdine (1899–1994), publisher and co-owner of Samson Press
*Edith Standen (1905–1998), American museum curator and military officer; one of the "Monuments Men"; Women's Caucus for Art Lifetime Achievement Award winner
* Pamela Vandyke-Price (1923–2014), wine taster and writer; first British woman to write about wine and spirits; receiver of the Order of Agricultural Merit
*Joan Wicken (1925-2004), personal assistant and speechwriter to Tanzanian president Julius Nyerere
*Marion Wilberforce (1902–1995), Scottish aviator; one of the first eight members of the Air Transport Auxiliary; one of only two women pool commanders in the whole ATA
*Beryl de Zoete (1879–1962), ballet dancer, orientalist, dance critic and dance researcher; also known as a translator of Italo Svevo and Alberto Moravia
Philosophers
*Anita Avramides (1952), philosopher whose work focuses on the philosophy of language and the philosophy of the mind
*Annette Baier (1929–2012),
New Zealand
New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...
philosopher and David Hume, Hume scholar; well known also for her contributions to feminist philosophy and to the philosophy of mind
*
Susanne Bobzien
Susanne Bobzien (born 1960) is a German-born philosopherWho'sWho in America 2012, 64th Edition whose research interests focus on philosophy of logic and language, determinism and freedom, and ancient philosophy. She is currently a visiting rese ...
FBA, German-born philosopher whose work focuses on logic & language, determinism & freedom, and ancient philosophy; first woman appointed a tutorial fellow at
The Queen's College, Oxford
The Queen's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford, England. The college was founded in 1341 by Robert de Eglesfield in honour of Philippa of Hainault, queen of England. It is distinguished by its predominantly neoclassi ...
*Sarah Broadie OBE FBA FRSE, professor at the
University of St Andrews
The University of St Andrews (, ; abbreviated as St And in post-nominals) is a public university in St Andrews, Scotland. It is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, oldest of the four ancient universities of Scotland and, f ...
; specialises in ancient philosophy, with a particular emphasis on Aristotle and Plato
* Patricia Churchland (1943), Canadian-American analytic philosopher, noted for her contributions to neurophilosophy and the philosophy of mind; winner of a MacArthur Fellows Program, MacArthur Fellowship
* Philippa Foot FBA (1920–2010), philosopher and ethicist, creator of the trolley problem
*Celia Green (1935), writer on philosophical skepticism and psychology
* Joanna Hodge PPE 1972- 1975 D.Phil 1982 Professor of Philosophy Emerita Manchester Metropolitan University : work on feminist materiality, phenomenology, deconstruction, embodiments
*
Rosalind Hursthouse
Rosalind Hursthouse (born 10 November 1943) is a British-born New Zealand moral philosopher noted for her work on virtue ethics. She is one of the leading exponents of contemporary virtue ethics, though she has also written extensively on ...
FRSNZ (1943), New Zealand moral philosopher noted for her work on virtue ethics
*Hidé Ishiguro (c. 1935), Japanese analytic philosopher; expert on the philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
*Martha Kneale (1909–2001), philosopher; President of the Aristotelian Society
* Genevieve Lloyd (1941), Australian philosopher and
feminist
Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...
; first female Professor of Philosophy in Australia; author of '' The Man of Reason''
*Penelope Mackie, philosopher, Professor of Philosophy University of Nottingham work on modality and necessity
*
Mary Midgley
Mary Beatrice Midgley (' Scrutton; 13 September 1919 – 10 October 2018) was a British philosopher. A senior lecturer in philosophy at Newcastle University, she was known for her work on science, ethics and animal rights. She wrote her first b ...
(1919–2018), moral philosopher
* Michele Moody-Adams, African-American philosopher; first female and first African-American dean of
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...
*Dame
Iris Murdoch
Dame Jean Iris Murdoch ( ; 15 July 1919 – 8 February 1999) was an Irish and British novelist and philosopher. Murdoch is best known for her novels about good and evil, sexual relationships, morality, and the power of the unconscious. Her fi ...
DBE (1919–1999), novelist and philosopher born in Ireland; twelfth on a list of ''The 50 greatest British writers since 1945''; winner of the
Booker Prize
The Booker Prize, formerly the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a prestigious literary award conferred each year for the best single work of sustained fiction written in the English language, wh ...
Modern Library 100 Best Novels
Modern Library's 100 Best Novels is a 1998 list of the best English-language novels published during the 20th century, as selected by the American publishing imprint, Modern Library, from among 400 novels published by Random House, which owns Mod ...
* Kathleen Nott FRSL (1905–1999), poet, novelist, critic, philosopher and editor
* Hilda D. Oakeley (1867–1950), philosopher, educationalist and author; first Warden of the new Royal Victoria College; first woman to deliver McGill's annual university lecture
*Susan Moller Okin (1946–2004),
New Zealand
New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...
liberal feminist political philosopher and author
* Onora O'Neill, Baroness O'Neill of Bengarve CH CBE FRS FBA FMedSci (1941), philosopher; first female winner of the Berggruen Prize; crossbench member of the House of Lords; Principal of Newnham College, Cambridge
*Eva Picardi (1948–2017), Italy, Italian philosopher
*Sybil Wolfram (1931-1993), philosopher and writer of German Jewish origin, mother of Stephen Wolfram
Politicians
* Elsbeth Dimsdale CBE (1871–1949), health campaigner and Liberal politician; first woman to receive a college fellowship at the
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...
; founder of the Royal Papworth Hospital
*Dame Penelope Jessel DBE (1920–1996), Liberal Party politician
* Eleanor Rathbone MP (1872–1946), independent MP; long-term campaigner for
family allowance
Child benefit or children's allowance is a social security payment which is distributed to the parents or guardians of children, teenagers and in some cases, young adult (psychology), young adults. Countries operate different versions of the benefi ...
and for women's rights; member of the Rathbone family and Somerville's first MP
* Shirley Williams, Baroness Williams of Crosby CH MP PC (1930-2021), politician and academic who represents the Liberal Democrats; one of the "Limehouse Declaration, Gang of Four" rebels who founded the Social Democratic Party (UK), Social Democratic Party (SDP)
Conservatives
*Nicola Blackwood, Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford (1979), Conservative Party politician, former MP
* Thérèse Coffey (1971), former Conservative Party politician and MP; Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
*
Sam Gyimah
Samuel Phillip Gyimah (; born 10 August 1976) is a British politician and banker who served as the Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) for East Surrey (UK Parliament constituency), East Surrey from 2010 United Kingd ...
MP (1976), Conservative Party politician; former Minister of State, Minister for Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, Universities, Science, Research and Innovation
*Dame Lucy Neville-Rolfe, Baroness Neville-Rolfe DBE CMG (1953), Conservative politician; Chairman of Assured Food Standards
*Dame Kathleen Ollerenshaw DBE (1912–2014), mathematician and politician; Lord Mayor of Manchester
*Margaret Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher LG OM DStJ PC FRS HonFRSC (1925–2013), ''Iron Lady'', Conservative politician and first female
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government of the United Kingdom. The prime minister Advice (constitutional law), advises the Monarchy of the United Kingdom, sovereign on the exercise of much of the Royal prerogative ...
*Helen Goodman MP (1958), Labour Party politician
*Nia Griffith MP (1956), Welsh Labour Party politician
*Mary Honeyball MEP (1952), Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the Labour Party representing London
*Margaret Jay, Baroness Jay of Paddington PC (1939), politician for the Labour Party; former BBC television producer and presenter; daughter of James Callaghan
*Peggy Jay (1913–2008), Labour councillor
* Leah L'Estrange Malone (1886–1951), politician; first female chair of Jewish Labour Movement, Poale Zion in the UK
* Jenny Manson (1948), British Jewish activist, author, former civil servant, Labour Party
councillor
A councillor, alternatively councilman, councilwoman, councilperson, or council member, is someone who sits on, votes in, or is a member of, a council. This is typically an elected representative of an electoral district in a municipal or re ...
and Chair of Jewish Voice for Labour
*Mary O'Brien Harris (1865–1938), member of the London County Council and Fabian Society
*
Lucy Powell
Lucy Maria Powell (born 10 October 1974) is a British politician who has served as Leader of the House of Commons and Lord President of the Council since July 2024. A member of the Labour and Co-operative parties, she has been the Member of Pa ...
MP (1974), Labour and Co-operative politician; Manchester's first female Labour member of parliament; Shadow Secretary of State for Housing
*Jake Richards (politician), Jake Richards (1989), MP for Rother Valley (UK Parliament constituency), Rother Valley
*Anne Sofer (1937), Labour and later Social Democrat politician; also served as a director of Channel 4
* Theresa Stewart (1930-2020), Labour politician; first female leader of Birmingham City Council and Lord Mayor of Birmingham
*Shirley Summerskill MP (1931), Labour Party politician and former government minister
* Shriti Vadera, Baroness Vadera PC (1962), investment banker and politician; government minister and Chairwoman of Santander UK; first woman to head a major British bank; first woman and first person of colour to chair the
Royal Shakespeare Company
The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs over 1,000 staff and opens around 20 productions a year. The RSC plays regularly in London, Stratf ...
*Eirene White, Baroness White MP (1909–1999), Labour politician and journalist
Indira Gandhi
Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi (Given name, ''née'' Nehru; 19 November 1917 – 31 October 1984) was an Indian politician and stateswoman who served as the Prime Minister of India, prime minister of India from 1966 to 1977 and again from 1980 un ...
(1917–1984),
Prime Minister of India
The prime minister of India (ISO 15919, ISO: ) is the head of government of the Republic of India. Executive authority is vested in the prime minister and his chosen Union Council of Ministers, Council of Ministers, despite the president of ...
, named "Woman of the Millennium" in an online poll organised by the BBC
* Svava Jakobsdóttir (1930–2004), one of
Iceland
Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...
's foremost 20th-century authors and feminist politicians
* Diana Josephson (1936-2006), first woman to lead the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA ) is an American scientific and regulatory agency charged with Weather forecasting, forecasting weather, monitoring oceanic and atmospheric conditions, Hydrography, charting the seas, ...
(NOAA) and first female Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere under Bill Clinton
*Catherine Mulholland (1940), former member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives
*Koila Nailatikau (1953), Fijian diplomat and politician; First Lady of Fiji from 2009 until 2015
* Adelaide Plumptre (1874–1948), Canadian activist, diplomat, and municipal politician in
Toronto
Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...
*Nina Coltart (1927–1997), psychoanalyst, psychotherapist, and essayist; Vice President of the British Psychoanalytical Society
*
Ann Dally
Ann Dally (29 March 1926, in London – 24 March 2007, in Graffham, West Sussex) was an English author and psychiatrist.
Born Ann Gwendolen Mullins, she was the eldest child of the lawyer Claud William Mullins (1887–1968) and his wife, the ...
(1926–2007), author and psychiatrist; first woman to study medicine at
St Thomas' Hospital
St Thomas' Hospital is a large NHS teaching hospital in Central London, England. Administratively part of the Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, together with Guy's Hospital, Evelina London Children's Hospital, Royal Brompton Hospita ...
*Janet Dean Fodor (1942-2023), psycholinguist
*Suzanne Higgs, psychologist and editor-in-chief of the journal ''Appetite (journal), Appetite''
*Mary Sturt (1896-1993), educational psychologist and historian of education
*Barbara Tizard FBA FBPsS (1926–2015), psychologist and academic, specialising in developmental psychology
* Anne Treisman (1935–2018), psychologist who specialised in cognitive psychology; developed the feature integration theory and attenuation theory; awarded the National Medal of Science, Grawemeyer Award and first woman to receive the Golden Brain Award
Radio and television
*Margaret Jay, Baroness Jay of Paddington PC (1939), politician for the Labour Party; former BBC television producer and presenter
*Kara Miller, Jamaican creator of ''The Lifestylista''; health & wellness expert; television host; writer & director working in film and television
*Sarah Mulvey (1974–2010), commissioning editor and television producer
*Nesta Pain (1905-1995), broadcaster and writer
*Dame Esther Rantzen DBE (1940), journalist and television presenter, best known for presenting the hit BBC television series ''That's Life!''; first woman to receive a Dimbleby Award from
BAFTA
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA, ) is an independent trade association and charity that supports, develops, and promotes the arts of film, television and video games in the United Kingdom. In addition to its annual awa ...
*
Mary Somerville
Mary Somerville ( ; , formerly Greig; 26 December 1780 – 29 November 1872) was a Scottish scientist, writer, and polymath. She studied mathematics and astronomy, and in 1835 she and Caroline Herschel were elected as the first female Honorar ...
(1897–1963), first director of BBC School Radio
*Joanna Spicer CBE (1906–1992), television executive employed by the BBC; involved with discussions that lead to ''Civilisation (TV series), Civilisation'' and ''Doctor Who''; "ran BBC Television single handed"
*Anne Symonds (1917–2017), broadcaster for the BBC World Service; grandmother-in-law of Boris Johnson
*Xand van Tulleken (1978), TV presenter with his identical twin brother Chris (Van Tulleken brothers)
*Rebecca Wilcox (1980), television presenter, mainly for the BBC
*Kate Williams (historian), Kate Williams (1978), author, historian and television presenter
*Grace Wyndham Goldie (1900–1986), producer and executive in British television
*Fasi Zaka (1974), Pakistani political commentator, columnist, radio talk show host, and television anchor; declared a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum
Religion
* Constance Coltman (1889–1969), Britain's first woman to be an ordained Minister (Christianity), minister
* Peggy Jackson (1951), current and first female Archdeacon of Llandaff
*Constance Langdon-Davies (1898 – 1954), one of the early Baháʼí Faith, Baháʼís in Britain
*Christina Le Moignan (1942), Methodism, Methodist minister and academic, who served as List of presidents of the Methodist Conference, President of the Methodist Conference
*Janet Soskice (1951), Canadian-born Catholic theologian and philosopher; her work has dealt with the role of women in Christianity
Missionaries
*Audrey Donnithorne (1922–2020), British-Chinese political economist and missionary, prominent in her efforts to rebuild the Catholic Church in China after the Cultural Revolution for which she was awarded the ''Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice''
*Agnes de Selincourt (1872–1917), Christians, Christian missionary in
India
India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
; responsible for the founding of missions; first Principal of Lady Muir Memorial College, Allahabad, India and then Principal of Westfield College, London
*Margaret Wrong (1887-1948), Canadian educator, missionary administrator and Africanist; Margaret Wrong Prize for African Literature was established in her memory after her death
Royalty and nobility
*Jane, Lady Abdy (1934–2015), English socialite and art dealer, described as one of the most original and respected art dealers of her generation
*Dame Hester Adrian, Baroness Adrian DBE BEM (1899-1966), mental health worker; president of the Howard League for Penal Reform
*Lady Anne Brewis MBE (1911–2002), botanist; daughter of Roundell Palmer, 3rd Earl of Selborne
*Lady Susan Chitty (1929-2021), novelist and a writer of biographies; wife of Thomas Hinde (novelist), Sir Thomas Willes Chitty, 3rd Baronet
*Lady Norma Dalrymple-Champneys (1902–1997), scholar of English literature; winner of the Rose Mary Crawshay Prize; wife of Weldon Dalrymple-Champneys, Sir Weldon Dalrymple-Champneys, 2nd Baronet
*Amanda Harlech, Baroness Harlech (1959), fashion consultant; named to the International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame
*Christine Longford, Countess of Longford (1900–1980), playwright; wife of Edward Pakenham, 6th Earl of Longford
* Margaret Mackworth, 2nd Viscountess Rhondda (1883–1958), Welsh peeress, businesswoman, significant suffragette,
RMS Lusitania
RMS ''Lusitania'' was a United Kingdom, British ocean liner launched by the Cunard Line in 1906. The Royal Mail Ship, the world's largest passenger ship until the completion of her sister three months later, in 1907 regained for Britain the ...
survivor, first female director of the Institute of Directors, founder of '' Time and Tide'' and the Six Point Group
*The Hon. Mary Anna Marten OBE (1929–2010), aristocrat and landowner who made legal history in the Crichel Down affair; goddaughter of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother; High Sheriff of Dorset; archaeologist
*
Lady Ottoline Morrell
Lady Ottoline Violet Anne Morrell (née Cavendish-Bentinck; 16 June 1873 – 21 April 1938) was an English Aristocracy (class), aristocrat and society hostess. Her patronage was influential in artistic and intellectual circles, where she befri ...
(1873–1938), aristocrat and society hostess; cousin of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother; her patronage was influential in artistic and intellectual circles; associated with the Bloomsbury Group; inspiration for several literary characters by Aldous Huxley, D. H. Lawrence, Graham Greene (writer), Graham Greene, Alan Bennett and Lady Constance Malleson, Constance Malleson
*Princess Catherine Hilda Duleep Singh (1871–1942), suffragist; daughter of Maharaja Duleep Singh
*Queen Raja Zarith Sofiah (1959), Queen of Johor and member of the Perak Royal Family
*Princess Bamba Sutherland (1869–1957), daughter of Maharaja Duleep Singh, last surviving member of the family that had ruled the Sikh Empire
* Lady Juliet Townsend DCVO (1941–2014), writer, first female Lord Lieutenant of Northamptonshire
*Jonkheer Xand Van Tulleken (1978), TV presenter with his identical twin brother Chris (Van Tulleken brothers)
*Elizabeth Young, Lady Kennet (1923–2014), writer, researcher, poet, artist, campaigner, analyst and questioning commentator
Scientists
*Jane Kirkaldy (1869–1932), one of the first women to obtain first-class honours in the natural sciences; contributed greatly to the education of the generation of English women scientists
* Margaret Seward MBE (1864–1939), first Oxford female student to be entered for the honour school of Mathematics; one of the first two female chemistry students at Oxford; earliest chemist on staff at the Royal Holloway (of which she was a founding lecturer); pioneer woman to obtain a first class in the honour school of Natural Science
* Premala Sivaprakasapillai Sivasegaram (1942), List of Sri Lankan engineers, Sri Lankan engineer, regarded as the country's first female engineer; acknowledged as one of twelve female change-makers in Sri Lanka by the Parliament of Sri Lanka, parliament
Biologists
*Dawn R. Bazely (1960), ecology and evolutionary biology professor
* Victoria Braithwaite FLS FRIN (1967–2019), scientist who was the first person to demonstrate that fish feel pain; winner of the FSBI Medal
*Dame Kay Davies DBE FRS FMedSci (1951), geneticist; Director of the Medical Research Council (United Kingdom), MRC and Oxford Centre for Gene Function; governor of the Wellcome Trust
*Valerie Todd Davies (1920), New Zealand arachnologist
*Marian Dawkins CBE FRS (1945), biologist; professor of ethology; wife of Richard Dawkins
*Marianne Fillenz (1924–2012), neuroscientist
*Lilian Jane Gould FLS (1861–1936), biologist; one of the first women admitted to the Linnaean Society; one of the first European breeders of Siamese cats
*Shirley Hodgson DM D(Obst) RCOG DCH FRCP FRSB (1945), geneticist
*Loeske Kruuk FRS, evolutionary ecologist; winner of the Philip Leverhulme Prize
*Rosalind Maskell FRCP (1928–2016), microbiologist known for her work on urinary tract infections
*Dame Angela McLean (biologist), Angela McLean DBE FRS (1961), professor of mathematical biology
*Jane Mellanby (1938-2021), neuroscientist and academic
*Christine Nicol, Professor of Animal Welfare at the Royal Veterinary College; winner of the Prince Laurent Foundation prize; her work has contributed to EU ban on conventional battery cages for laying hens in 2012
*Sohaila Rastan, geneticist
*Elsie Maud Wakefield OBE (1886–1972), mycologist and plant pathologist
=Botanists
=
*Lady Anne Brewis MBE (1911–2002), botanist; daughter of Roundell Palmer, 3rd Earl of Selborne
*Adeline May Cowan (1892–1981), botanist who was active in India
*Emilia Frances Noel FLS (c. 1868–1950), botanist, author and illustrator
*Molly Marples (1908-1998), New Zealand microbial ecologist/medical mycologist who spent most of her career at the University of Otago; noted as an early proponent of the theory that skin provides an ecosystem that supports a diversity of microorganisms
*Edith Philip Smith FLS FRSE (1897–1976), Scottish botanist and teacher
*Pat Wolseley (1938), botanist specialised in lichen
Chemists
*Jean Baum, American chemist, distinguished professor of chemistry and chemical biology at Rutgers University
*Jenny Pickworth Glusker (1931), biochemist and crystallography, crystallographer; winner of the Garvan–Olin Medal, John Scott Medal and William Procter Prize for Scientific Achievement
*Rita Harradence (1915–2012), Australian biochemist who synthesised penicillamine; 1851 Research Fellowship, 1851 Exhibition Scholar
*Pauline Harrison CBE (1926–2024), protein crystallographer
*Dame Julia Higgins DBE FRS FREng (1942), polymer scientist, winner of the Fernand Holweck Medal and Prize, Holweck Medal and Legion of Honour, President of the British Science Association, Institution of Chemical Engineers and Institute of Physics
*
Dorothy Hodgkin
Dorothy Mary Crowfoot Hodgkin (née Crowfoot; 12 May 1910 – 29 July 1994) was a Nobel Prize-winning English chemist who advanced the technique of X-ray crystallography to determine the structure of biomolecules, which became essential for ...
OM FRS HonFRSC (1910–1994), Nobel Prize winner for her discovery of the structure of Vitamin B12 and development of protein crystallography; first, and only, British woman to win a Nobel Prize in science; first woman to receive maternity pay at Oxford University and first female Chancellor of the
University of Bristol
The University of Bristol is a public university, public research university in Bristol, England. It received its royal charter in 1909, although it can trace its roots to a Merchant Venturers' school founded in 1595 and University College, Br ...
*Judith Howard CBE FRS (1945), distinguished chemist and crystallographer
*Margaret Jope (1913–2004), Scottish biochemist
*Cecily Littleton (1926-2022), X-ray crystallographer and horticulturalist; great-granddaughter of Charles Darwin; developed the statistical analysis techniques to model crystal structures
*Barbara Low (biochemist), Barbara Low (1920–2019), biochemist and biophysicist involved in discovering the structure of penicillin and the characteristics of other antibiotics
*Mary Watson (chemist), Mary Watson (1856–1933), one of the first two female chemistry students at Oxford
Earth scientists
*Helen ApSimon CBE (1942), climatologist and academic; known for her research into the transport of radioactivity from the Chernobyl disaster
*Mary Winearls Porter (1886–1980), crystallography, crystallographer and geologist, known for her publications about ancient Roman architecture.
Mathematicians
*Kathryn Chaloner (1954–2014), statistician
*Anne Cobbe (1920–1971), mathematician
*Jane Kister (1944–2019), mathematical logician and executive editor of ''Mathematical Reviews''
*Pamela Liebeck (1930–2012), mathematician and mathematics educator
*Hilary Ockendon, applied mathematician and an expert on problems in fluid dynamics
*Dame Kathleen Ollerenshaw DBE (1912–2014), mathematician, politician, Lord Mayor of Manchester
*Robyn Owens, Australian applied mathematician and computer scientist known for her research in computer vision and face recognition
*Caroline Series FRS (1951), mathematician; President of the London Mathematical Society; Whitehead Prize winner
*Mary Wynne Warner (1932–1998), mathematician, specializing in fuzzy mathematics
Physicists
*Joanna Haigh CBE FRS FRMetS (1954), physicist and academic; President of the Royal Meteorological Society
*Jacqueline Mitton (1948), astronomer, writer, and media consultant; asteroid 4027 Mitton is named after her
*Alexandra Olaya-Castro (1976), Colombian theoretical physicist; winner of the Maxwell Medal and Prize, Maxwell Prize
*Anne Tropper, physicist
*Julia Yeomans FRS FInstP (1954), theoretical physicist and academic
sociolinguistics
Sociolinguistics is the descriptive, scientific study of how language is shaped by, and used differently within, any given society. The field largely looks at how a language changes between distinct social groups, as well as how it varies unde ...
; Sawiris Cultural Award winner
* Gwendolen M. Carter (1906–1991), Canadian-American political scientist; one of the founders of African Studies in the United States; first female president of the
African Studies Association
The African Studies Association (ASA) is a US-based association of scholars, students, practitioners, and institutions with an interest in the continent of Africa. Founded in 1957, the ASA is the leading organization of African Studies in North ...
; among the most widely known scholars of African affairs in the twentieth century
* Ann Oakley (1944), sociologist,
feminist
Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...
, and writer; author of '' The Men's Room''
*Nandini Sundar (1967), Indian professor of sociology; recipient of the Infosys Prize#Laureates in Social Sciences, Infosys Prize for Social Sciences
Anthropologists
*Brenda Beck (c. 1940), anthropologist and Tamil culture icon
*Beatrice Blackwood (1889–1975), anthropologist; ran the Pitt Rivers Museum
*
Maria Czaplicka
Maria Antonina Czaplicka (25 October 1884 – 27 May 1921), also referred to as Marya Antonina Czaplicka and Marie Antoinette Czaplicka, was a Polish cultural anthropologist who is best known for her ethnography of Siberian shamanism. Czaplicka ...
(1884–1921), Polish cultural anthropologist best known for her ethnography of Siberian shamanism; first woman to receive a Mianowski Scholarship and first female lecturer in anthropology at Oxford
*Rada Dyson-Hudson (1930-2016), American anthropologist
*Ruth Finnegan OBE FBA (1933), Northern Irish linguistic anthropologist; recipient of the Rivers Memorial Medal
* Katherine Routledge (1866–1935), archaeologist and anthropologist who initiated the first true survey of
Easter Island
Easter Island (, ; , ) is an island and special territory of Chile in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeasternmost point of the Polynesian Triangle in Oceania. The island is renowned for its nearly 1,000 extant monumental statues, ...
(leader of the Mana Expedition to Easter Island, Mana Expedition)
* Mai Yamani (1956), independent scholar, author and anthropologist; first Saudi Arabian woman to obtain a M.St. and a D.Phil. from Oxford
Economists
*Julia Aglionby FRGS FRSA (1969), economist, land agent, and politician
*Audrey Donnithorne (1922–2020), British-Chinese political economist and missionary, prominent in her efforts to rebuild the Catholic Church in China after the Cultural Revolution for which she was awarded the ''Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice''
*Rachel Glennerster CMG (1965), Chief Economist at the Department for International Development
*Ursula Kathleen Hicks (1896–1985), Irish-born economist and academic
*Dame Barbara Ward, Baroness Jackson of Lodsworth DBE (1914–1981), economist and writer interested in the problems of developing countries; winner of the Jawaharlal Nehru Award
*Mary Kaldor CBE (1946), academic; current Professor of Global Governance at the London School of Economics, LSE; daughter of Nicholas Kaldor
*Utsa Patnaik, Indian Marxist economist
*Frances Stewart (economist), Frances Stewart (1940), professor emeritus of development economics; daughter of Nicholas Kaldor
*Doreen Warriner (1904–1972), development economist, known chiefly for her role in rescuing refugees just before World War II
*Alison Wolf, Baroness Wolf of Dulwich CBE (1949), economist and professor at King's College London, KCL
Sports
*Margaret Darvall (1909–1996), mountaineer; president of the Ladies' Alpine Club and the Pinnacle Club
*Rosamund Dashwood (1924–2007), one of the top female masters (i.e. over 35) long-distance running, runners in Canadian history
* Sheila Hill MBE (1928-2022), cricketer, umpire, scorer and administrator; helped with the development of the Association of Cricket Umpires and Scorers and was the first woman to be elected to its general council; one of the first ten women granted honorary MCC membership
*Sophie Le Marchand (1988), cricketer
*Jamie Powe (1995), cricketer
*Mary Russell Vick (1922–2012), field hockey player
*Smit Singh (1991), present National Record holder of
India
India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
in skeet shooting
*Dorjana Širola (1972), Croatian quizzer, linguist and anglicist; highest placed woman at the World Quizzing Championship in seven years; winner of ''University Challenge'' for Somerville
* Claire Tomlinson (1944), highest-rated female polo player; first woman to win the County Cup and the Queen's Cup; first woman in the world to rise to five goals; first female player in The Varsity Polo Match; first female captain of the OUPC
Rowers
* Fiona Freckleton (1960), rower; bronze medalist in women's pairs, World Rowing Championships, Vienna, 1991; competed at the 1992 Summer Olympics and 1993 World Rowing Championships
*Jennifer Goldsack (1982), American rower; competed at the 2008 Summer Olympics
*Luka Grubor (1973), Croatian rower; won a gold medal at the 2000 Summer Olympics
*Patricia Reid (rower), Patricia Reid (1964), rower; competed at the 1992 Summer Olympics; silver and bronze medalist at the 1986 Commonwealth Games
Spies
*Jenifer Hart (1914–2005), academic and senior civil servant; accused of having been a spy for the Soviet Union
* Daphne Park, Baroness Park of Monmouth CMG OBE FRSA (1921–2010), spy, clandestine senior controller in MI6; Principal of Somerville College
*Phoebe Pool (1913–1971), art historian and spy for the Soviet Union
Translators
*Anthea Bell OBE (1936–2018), translator of numerous literary works, especially children's literature, including ''Austerlitz (novel), Austerlitz'' and the French ''Asterix'' comics
*Catherine Glyn Davies (1926–2007), Welsh history of philosophy, historian of philosophy and linguistics; translator
*Lucienne Hill (1923–2012), French-English translator and actor; winner of the Evening Standard Theatre Award and Tony Award
*Emily Lorimer OBE (1881–1949), Anglo-Irish journalist, linguist, political analyst, and writer
*Janet Seymour-Smith (1930-1998), worked as a translator of Greek texts for Robert Graves and she became a life-long muse and collaborator with her husband Martin Seymour-Smith
*Helen Waddell (1889–1965), Irish poet, translator and playwright; winner of the Benson Medal
*Eithne Wilkins (1914-1975), New Zealand Germanic Studies scholar, translator and poet
*Beryl de Zoete (1879–1962), ballet dancer, orientalist, dance critic and dance researcher; also known as a translator of Italo Svevo and Alberto Moravia
Fellows & staff
*
G. E. M. Anscombe
Gertrude Elizabeth Margaret Anscombe (; 18 March 1919 – 5 January 2001), usually cited as G. E. M. Anscombe or Elizabeth Anscombe, was a British analytic philosopher. She wrote on the philosophy of mind, philosophy of action, philosophi ...
FBA (1919–2001), analytic philosopher
*Mary Archer (1944), Baroness Archer of Weston-super-Mare DBE (1944), scientist specialising in solar power conversion; wife of Jeffrey Archer
*David Barford FRS FMedSci, medical researcher
*Annie Barnes (academic), Annie Barnes (1903–2003), reader in French literature
*Elise Jenny Baumgartel (1892–1975), German Egyptologist and Prehistory, prehistorian who pioneered the study of the archaeology of predynastic Egypt
*Amita Baviskar, sociologist studying the cultural politics of environment and development in rural and urban India; awarded the Infosys Prize
*Tony Bell (physicist), Tony Bell FRS, physicist; winner of the Hoyle Medal and Prize, Eddington Medal and Hannes Alfvén Prize
*Margarete Bieber (1879–1978), Jewish German-American art historian, classical archaeologist and professor, second woman university professor in Germany
*Käthe Bosse-Griffiths (1910–1998), German-born Egyptologist and writer in the Welsh language
*Sarah Broom (1972–2013),
New Zealand
New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...
poet; the Sarah Broom Poetry Prize is named after her
*Gráinne de Búrca FBA (1966), Irish legal scholar, specialising in European Union law
*Nina Byers (1930–2014), theoretical physicist
*Muriel St. Clare Byrne (1895–1983), historical researcher
*Herman Cappelen (1967), Norwegian philosopher
*April Carter (1937), peace activist; active in the anti-nuclear movement in the United Kingdom
* Maude Clarke (1892–1935), Irish historian; first female to join
Queen's University Belfast
The Queen's University of Belfast, commonly known as Queen's University Belfast (; abbreviated Queen's or QUB), is a public research university in Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom. The university received its charter in 1845 as part of ...
’s academic staff
*Anne Cobbe (1920–1971), mathematician
*Amalia Coldea, Romanian quantum physicist
*Helen De Cruz (1978), Belgian philosopher
*Henriette Dahan Kalev (1947), Israeli feminist theorist and political scientist; one of the founders of the Mizrahi Jews, Mizrahi feminist movement, and one of the leading theorists of Mizrahi feminism
*Stephanie Dalley FSA (1943), scholar of the Ancient Near East
*Lady Norma Dalrymple-Champneys (1902–1997, librarian), scholar of English literature; winner of the Rose Mary Crawshay Prize
*Marian Dawkins CBE FRS (1945), biologist; professor of ethology; wife of Richard Dawkins
*Helen DeWitt (1957), novelist; writer of ''The Last Samurai (novel), The Last Samurai'' and ''Lightning Rods (novel), Lightning Rods''
*Ursula Dronke (1920–2012), medievalist
*Nan Dunbar (1928–2005), classicist
*Katherine Duncan-Jones FRSL (1941), literature and Shakespeare scholar
*Jennifer Durrant RA (1942), artist-in-residence
*Dorothy Emmet (1904–2000), philosopher; a founder member of the Epiphany Philosophers
*Karin Erdmann (1948), German mathematician
*Colin Espie FRSM FBPsS (1957), Scottish neuroscientist and Professor of Sleep Medicine
*Barbara Everett, academic and literary critic
*Marc Feldmann AC FAA FRS FRCP FRCPath FMedSci (1944), Australian immunology, immunologist; winner of the Crafoord Prize, Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award, Cameron Prize for Therapeutics of the University of Edinburgh, Dr. Paul Janssen Award for Biomedical Research, Ernst Schering Prize and Canada Gairdner International Award.
* Philippa Foot FBA (1920–2010), philosopher and creator of the trolley problem
* Barbara Freire-Marreco (1879–1967), anthropologist and folklorist; one of the first two women to gain a Diploma in Anthropology at Oxford
*Margery Fry (1874–1958), prison reformer; one of the first women to become a magistrate
*Elspeth Garman (1954), professor of molecular biophysics; President of the British Crystallographic Association; the "Garman limit" is eponym, named after her; winner of the Suffrage Science award
*Pelagia Goulimari (1964), Greek-British author, editor, and academic specialising in literary criticism, feminist theory, continental philosophy, and writing in English from 1740 to the present; co-founded ''Angelaki''
*Hilary Greaves (1978), philosopher
*Charlotte Byron Green (1842–1929, Vice-President), promoter of women's education
*Miriam T. Griffin (1935–2018), American classical scholar; held the first ''Women in Classics'' dinner (at Somerville College)
*Sarah Gurr, plant pathologist
*Grace Eleanor Hadow OBE (1875–1940), author, principal of St Anne's College, Oxford, and vice-chairman of the Women's Institute
*Edith Hall (1959), scholar of classics, specialising in ancient Greek literature and cultural history
*Helena Hamerow FSA (1961), Professor of Early Medieval Archaeology; former Head of the School of Archaeology, University of Oxford, School of Archaeology at Oxford
*Jenny Harrison (1949), American mathematician
*Barbara Harvey (1928), medieval historian
*Margaret Hayes-Robinson (1876-1930), historian and the head of Royal Holloway's History Department
*Isobel Henderson (1906–1967), ancient historian; one of the first woman tutors to be allowed to join Oxford's 'Ancient History Dinners'
* Gertrud Herzog-Hauser (1894–1953), Austrian Classics#Philology, classical philologist; first Austrian woman to gain a
habilitation
Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in Germany, France, Italy, Poland and some other European and non-English-speaking countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excelle ...
at university and
Vienna
Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...
’s first university lecturer in classical language.
*James Higginbotham FBA (1941–2014), Vera Brittain Visiting Fellow, professor of Linguistics and philosophy
*
Dorothy Hodgkin
Dorothy Mary Crowfoot Hodgkin (née Crowfoot; 12 May 1910 – 29 July 1994) was a Nobel Prize-winning English chemist who advanced the technique of X-ray crystallography to determine the structure of biomolecules, which became essential for ...
OM FRS HonFRSC (1910–1994), Nobel Prize winner for her discovery of the structure of Vitamin B12 and development of protein crystallography; first, and only, British woman to win a Nobel Prize in science; first woman to receive maternity pay at Oxford University; first female Chancellor of the
University of Bristol
The University of Bristol is a public university, public research university in Bristol, England. It received its royal charter in 1909, although it can trace its roots to a Merchant Venturers' school founded in 1595 and University College, Br ...
* Alan Hollinghurst FRSL (1954), English novelist, poet, short story writer and translator, winner of the
James Tait Black Memorial Prize
The James Tait Black Memorial Prizes are literary prizes awarded for literature written in the English language. They, along with the Hawthornden Prize, are Britain's oldest literary awards. Based at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, Un ...
and
Booker Prize
The Booker Prize, formerly the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a prestigious literary award conferred each year for the best single work of sustained fiction written in the English language, wh ...
*Margaret Hubbard (1924–2011), Australian-born British classical scholar specialising in philology; described as "one of the most distinguished classical scholars of the modern age"; one of St Anne's College, Oxford, St Anne's College's 15 founding fellows
*David Hutchinson (physicist), David Hutchinson FInstP (1969), quantum physicist
*Evelyn Jamison (1877–1972), medievalist
*Louise Johnson DBE FRS (1940–2012), biochemist and protein crystallographer; winner of the Suffrage Science award; part of the team that discovered the structure of the enzyme lysozyme
*Dame Carole Jordan DBE FRS FRAS FInstP (1941), physicist, astrophysicist, astronomer and academic
*Patricia Kingori, British Kenyan sociologist interested in misinformation and pseudoscience; included in the 2015 ''Powerlist''; youngest black Oxbridge professor and the youngest woman to ever be awarded a full professorship at the University of Oxford
*Jane Kister (1944–2019), mathematical logician and executive editor of ''Mathematical Reviews''
*Lotte Labowsky (1905–1991), exiled Jewish German classicist
*Aditi Lahiri (1952), India born German linguist
*Claire Lamont (1942), specialist in the works of Jane Austen and Sir Walter Scott; winner of the Rose Mary Crawshay Prize
*Mary Lascelles FBA (1900–1995), literary scholar
*Irene Lemos FSA, classical archaeologist specialising in the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age of Ancient Greece, Greece
*Chris Lintott FRAS (1980), astronomer
*Mary Lobel (1900–1993, librarian), historian who edited several volumes of the Victoria County History
*Michael Lodge, Secretary-General of the International Seabed Authority
*Emily Lorimer OBE (1881–1949), Anglo-Irish journalist, linguist, political analyst, and writer
* Hilda Lorimer (1873–1954), classical scholar; one of the first three women to participate in an excavation conducted by the
British School at Athens
The British School at Athens (BSA; ) is an institute for advanced research, one of the eight British International Research Institutes supported by the British Academy, that promotes the study of Greece in all its aspects. Under UK law it is a reg ...
*Jonathan Marchini (1973), Bayesian inference, Bayesian statistician and professor of statistical genomics
*Faith Martin (secretary), pen name of English author Jacquie Walton best known for her detective series
*Lois McNay, political theorist
*Anita Mehta, Indian physicist
*Dame Anna Morpurgo Davies DBE FSA FBA (1937–2014), Italian philologist
*Natalia Nowakowska (1977), historian of late medieval and Renaissance Europe
*Hilary Ockendon, applied mathematician and an expert on problems in fluid dynamics
*Daphne Osborne (1930–2006), botanist
*Patricia Owens (academic), Patricia Owens (1975), British-Irish academic, author and professor in International Relations
*Clara Pater (1841–1910), language and literature scholar; pioneer and early reformer of women's education; tutor of Virginia Woolf
*Valerie Pearl (1926–1916), historian, President of New Hall, Cambridge
*Dame Emily Penrose DBE (1858–1942), Principal of Royal Holloway College, Bedford College, London, Bedford College and Somerville College; first woman to gain a First in Greats (Classics) at Oxford
*Colin Phillips, psycholinguist
*Bertha Phillpotts (1877–1932), scholar in Scandinavian languages, literature, history, archaeology and anthropology
*Antoinette Pirie (1905–1991), biochemist, ophthalmologist, and educator
*Gita Piramal (1954), Indian writer and business historian
* Mildred Pope (1872–1956), scholar of Anglo-Norman England; first woman to hold a readership at Oxford University; the character Miss Lydgate in Dorothy L. Sayers, Sayers' ''Gaudy Night'' (1935) is based on Pope
*Mary Winearls Porter (1886–1980), crystallography, crystallographer and geologist, known for her publications about ancient Roman architecture
*Mason Porter, American mathematician and physicist; winner of the Erdős–Rényi Prize and Whitehead Prize
*Tessa Rajak (1946), ancient historian, primarily focused on Judaism in the Hellenistic period, Hellenistic and Roman periods; expert on the writings of Josephus
*Tobias Reinhardt (1971), German classical scholar, specialising in Latin literature and ancient philosophy
*Stephen Roberts (professor), Stephen Roberts FREng, professor of machine learning
*Alex Rogers (biologist), Alex Rogers, professor of conservation biology
*Bridget Rosewell OBE FAcSS (1951), economist
*Peter Rutledge,
New Zealand
New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...
chemist
* Susan M. Scott FAA, Australian physicist whose work concerns general relativity, gravitational singularities, and black holes; first female physicist to win the Prime Minister's Prizes for Science, Prime Minister's Prize for Science
* Chehrzad Shakiban (1951), Iranian and American mathematician, the first Iranian woman to receive a Ph.D. in mathematics and the first Iranian woman to become a full professor of mathematics
*Rose Sidgwick (1877–1918), one of the founders of the International Federation of University Women
*Steven H. Simon (1967), American theoretical physicist; LeRoy Apker Award (APS), LeRoy Apker Award and Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award winner
*Mary Snow (1902–1978), botanist who contributed to the study of geotropism and phyllotaxis
*Iyiola Solanke, Professor of European Union Law; founded the Black Female Professors Forum
*Charles Spence (1969), experimental psychologist
*Fiona Stafford FBA, Professor of English Language and Literature
*Phyllis Starkey (1947), Labour party politician
*Enid Starkie CBE (1897–1970), Irish literary critic known for her biographical works on French poets; officer of the Legion of Honour
*Frances Stewart (economist), Frances Stewart (1940), professor emeritus of development economics; daughter of Nicholas Kaldor
*Mary Stocks, Baroness Stocks (1891–1975), writer who was deeply involved in women's suffrage, the welfare state, and other aspects of social work
*Martin Suckling (1981), composer and violinist
*Dame Lucy Sutherland DBE FBA FRSA (1903–1980), Australian-born historian and head of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford
*Rachel Tanner, immunologist; winner of the 'Women of the Future' Award for Science in 2019
*Jenny Teichman (1930–2018), Australian/British philosopher, writing mostly on ethics
*Rajesh Thakker (1954), Professor of Medicine
*Angela Vincent FRS FMedSci (1942), neuroscientist
*Timothy Walker (botanist), Timothy Walker (1958), botanist, ''Horti Praefectus'' (Director) of the University of Oxford Botanic Garden and Harcourt Arboretum
*Doreen Warriner (1904–1972), development economist, known chiefly for her role in rescuing refugees just before World War II
*Kevin Warwick FIET FCGI (1954), engineer and Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) at
Coventry University
Coventry University is a Public university, public research university in Coventry, England. The origins of Coventry University can be linked to the Coventry School of Art and Design, Coventry School of Design in 1843. It was known as Lancheste ...
; known for his studies on direct interfaces between computer systems and the human nervous system; winner of the IET Mountbatten Medal, Ellison–Cliffe Lecture, Ellison–Cliffe Medal and Golden Eurydice Award
*Stephen Weatherill (1961), professor of European law
*Dame Veronica Wedgwood OM DBE FBA FRHistS (1910–1997), historian specializing in the history of 17th-century England and Continental Europe; winner of the
James Tait Black Memorial Prize
The James Tait Black Memorial Prizes are literary prizes awarded for literature written in the English language. They, along with the Hawthornden Prize, are Britain's oldest literary awards. Based at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, Un ...
and the Goethe Medal; President of the English Association
*Jennifer Welsh (1965), Canadian researcher, writer and consultant; United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Adviser on the Responsibility to Protect
*Stephanie West FBA, classical scholar
*Hilary Davan Wetton (1943), Senior Music Associate, conductor
*Deirdre Wilson FBA (1941), linguist and cognitive scientist
*Rosemary Woolf (1925–1978), scholar of medieval literature
* Dorothy Maud Wrinch (1894–1976), mathematician and biochemical theorist; first female Lecturer in Mathematics at Oxford and first woman to receive an Oxford DSc
*Leonie Zuntz (1908–1942), German Hittitologist, included in The Black Book (list), The Black Book
Honorary fellows
Notable honorary fellows (excluding alumni) are Simon Russell Beale, Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, Nancy Rothwell, and Kiri Te Kanawa. Notable foundation fellows are Charles Powell, Baron Powell of Bayswater, and Wafic Saïd.
Principals
The first principal of Somerville Hall was Madeleine Shaw-Lefèvre (1879–1889). The first principal of Somerville College was Agnes Catherine Maitland (1889–1906) when in 1894 it became the first of the five women's halls of residence to adopt the title of 'college', the first of them to appoint its own teaching staff, the first to set an entrance examination, and the first to build Somerville College Library, a library. She was succeeded by classical scholar Emily Penrose (1906–1926), who established the ''Mary Somerville Research Fellowship'' in 1903 which was the first to offer women in Oxford opportunities for research. Alumnae Margery Fry (1926–1930), Helen Darbishire (1930–1945), Janet Vaughan (1945–1967), Barbara Craig (1967–1980) and Daphne Park, Baroness Park of Monmouth (1980–1989) also served as Principal of Somerville College.
The current principal is Janet Royall, Baroness Royall of Blaisdon.Announcement of new Principal at Somerville College Somerville College, 9 February 2017. She succeeded Alice Prochaska at the end of August 2017.
Rejected offers
Notable people who did not or could not accept an offer to study or conduct research at Somerville include Elizabeth Alexander (scientist), Elizabeth Alexander, Christabel Bielenberg, Emmy Noether, Olwen Rhys, Alison Settle, and Elisabeth de Stroumillo.
References
Bibliography
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Somerville College People, List Of
Lists of people associated with the University of Oxford
People associated with Somerville College, Oxford