In October 1974 Lyn Millington-Wallace, a second year economics student, proposed starting a women’s group at the college to campaign against sexism, and invited interested students to get in touch.
A women’s group was founded in January 1975 – the same year the British Government passed The Sex Discrimination Act, to protect men and women from discrimination on the grounds of sex or marital status, and during what was designated ‘International Women’s Year’ by the UN.
Founding member Mona Gleditsch wrote that the group wanted people to realise ‘…we are normal, quite serious (not just bra-burning) mammals.’ The group’s campaigns covered roughly the same area as the NUS Women’s Campaign, with members campaigning against the James White Abortion Amendment Bill, and campaigning for a QMC crèche and the introduction of a women’s studies course at QMC.
In the academic year 1980-1981, the women’s group pointed out that the large numerical disparity between the sexes at Queen Mary demonstrated the discrimination women still faced in education. As well as campaigning for women’s rights and raising awareness of societal inequality, the group worked in the community to improve the standing of women locally, alongside women’s groups in local colleges and Women’s Aid. Activities included collecting clothes for Chiswick Women’s Aid and Tower Hamlet’s Women’s Refuge.
In 1981 Queen Mary delegates to the annual NUS ‘Women’s Campaigns Conference’ supported a unanimously passed motion ‘asserting the right of college women’s groups to organise autonomously without the presence of men’. Whether to accept the presence of men in women’s groups had been an issue of discussion since 1975, when the NUS conference decided campaigning groups should be open to all. Now, however, group member Jayne Egerton stated ‘we have the right to organise around and define our own oppression without the interference and presence of any man.’
In 1985-1986, the group, committed to fighting sexist, racist and homophobic attitudes and aligned to the wider feminist movement, hosted invited speakers from ‘Women Against Pit Closures’, ‘Campaign for Lesbian Custody’ and ‘Women Fightback’. As members of The Greater London Organisation of Women Students, Queen Mary students worked with women from other institutions to challenge the Gillick campaign, which aimed to prevent the prescription of contraception to under-16s without parental consent or knowledge.
By the early 1990s, the Students’ Union women’s officer had responsibility for organising the women’s group, and the constitution of the union now stated that the aims of the union should be pursued without discrimination on the grounds of sex.
Queen Mary’s existing feminist society, QMEquality, was founded in 2011 by Wanda Canton, and works towards gender equality on campus and in the wider community. From the early 1990s, third-wave feminist movements broadened in scope to include diverse groups of women with diverse identities, and QMEquality is reflective of this inclusive approach – the committee has President, Vice President, Secretary, Disabled Rep, Trans Rep, Women of Colour Reps and Bisexual Rep roles. In March 2012 QMEquality launched their annual Festival51, a celebration of International Women's Day. The fourth Festival51 ran from Monday 29th February until 11th March 2016.
To learn more about women at Queen Mary visit The Women at Queen Mary online exhibition. If you have any questions or to arrange a visit to the archives please email us at: archives@qmul.ac.uk.