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C e l e b r at i n g 200 Y e a r s
The Cambridge Union Society
Contemporary Perspective: Women in the Union Sophie Hollows & Lauren Davidson
Vice President, 2011-12 & President Lent 2011
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INCE 1967, when Ann Mallalieu became the first woman to win that coveted red leather chair, the Union has been proud to include some of Cambridge’s most respected and admired alumnae among its former female presidents, including Hélène Hayman, Arianna Huffington and Clare Balding. These women have been inspirations to us, the female executives who don’t yet have our own Wikipedia pages, not least because we can appreciate what kind of rubbish they must have had to put up with from the testosterone filled chambers of this society.
Forced Marriage Forum Michalmas 2014 Two years later, however, the Union was ready for both, when the daughter of a Minister in the Wilson Government – Ann Mallalieu of Newnham – comfortably beat her male opponent by 190 votes to 104 to become the Union’s first female President. Her election made the news not only on the front pages of the national press, but around the world. It aroused particular interest at Oxford: although they had admitted women slightly earlier, there had still not been a female President of the Union there. They thought it ‘mal à l’autre lieu’. The Union’s second woman President – Hélène Middleweek (Easter 1969; now Baroness Hayman) was also a Labour member: indeed, the two went
Photo: Chris Williamson
head-to-head for the party’s nomination in Welwyn & Hatfield in 1974. It was Middleweek who won, becoming the first sitting MP to have a baby – and the first Speaker of the House of Lords in 2006. So, while it may have taken the best part of a century after the foundation of Girton and Newnham for the Union to admit women, the Society was rather faster than the rest of Cambridge. Even other student societies such as the Footlights took longer to admit women. Eric Idle, their President in October 1964, complained to the club’s senior treasurer that ‘it is rather sad that the Footlights lag behind even the Union’.
In addition to the prominence of its female officers, the Union plays an important role in contributing to and shaping the national debate around women's issues. In recent years, the society has hosted speakers including Dame Judi Dench, Baroness Hale and Lisa Kudrow and debated motions such as This House Believes Feminism Has Failed the Western World, This House Believes That Feminism Should Exclude Men, This House Believes Gender Exists to Oppress and This House Believes The Veil Empowers Women (that last one only won 24 votes for the proposition) – not to mention a host of debates that are indirectly about the place of women in modern society, on the topics of religion, politics and human rights. Despite its steps towards inclusivity, however, the Union still has a long way to go before it can be truly proud of its female participation. It has had only twenty-nine female presidents, but we have every confidence that the Union will continue to mature both in age and modernity – and we will be proud to say that we were a part of this great institution.
Arianna Stassinopoulos President, Michaelmas 1971
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