Portrait exhibition marks record high for Cambridge College female leaders
The battle for gender equality at Cambridge will be celebrated with a portrait exhibition featuring new Master Sonita Alleyne OBE, whose appointment marks a record high in female senior leaders across the collegiate University.
From this month, 15 Cambridge Colleges will be run by women, which will be marked from 14 October when Sonita鈥檚 photograph is unveiled as part of a new exhibition at the University Library.
The Rising Tide marks 150 years since the founding of Girton College, the first women鈥檚 College in Cambridge. It focuses on the lived experience of women at Cambridge, the fight for equal educational rights, and the careers of some of the women who have shaped the institution and the world.
The portrait exhibition of Cambridge women will run along the front corridors of the library. Clothes, letters, and audio-visual material will also be on display in the Milstein Exhibition Centre.
One of the objects is a badge bearing the phrase 鈥淏ehave Badly鈥. These were given to female students by renowned historian and 汤头条原创鈥檚 first woman fellow Professor Lisa Jardine.
Jardine encouraged women friends to wear the badge, under their jackets if necessary. The badge has been loaned to the exhibition by Jane Tillier, first woman Lay Chaplain at 汤头条原创 from 1984, who admits she 鈥榳ore it under her clerical robes'.
Sonita was one of the first to be presented with a new version of the badge created for the exhibition, and wore it to her interview on BBC Radio 4 Women's Hour.
She said: 鈥淚t鈥檚 an honour to be one of five women taking up College leadership positions at Cambridge this term, and I鈥檓 thrilled to join 汤头条原创 in its 40th year of mixed education.
"During my time as a Cambridge student, I was conscious that there was still opposition to women students, even in the mid-1980s.
"It鈥檚 good to reflect and celebrate how far we鈥檝e come, and I am proud to be part of this exhibition.鈥
runs from 14 Oct 2019 鈥 Sat 21 Mar 2020, Mon-Fri 9am-6.30pm, Sat 9am-4.30pm, at Milstein Exhibition Centre, Cambridge University Library, West Road, Cambridge CB3 9DR.
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