Belle of the Nobel Ball

Heirlooms promote women scientist leaders

A hundred years ago, women in this country had no right to vote. Only a privileged few had educational opportunities. While the University of Oxford admitted women as undergraduates from 1920, they imposed a quota to ensure that the ratio never exceeded one in every four men, until a mere 50 years ago. Shortly after, one of their alumni became the first British woman to win a Nobel prize for science. It was still compulsory then for women in certain professions, such as teaching and the civil service, to resign on marriage to care for their husband and children.