Steamboat Ladies

Steamboat Ladies is the story of 700 female students from colleges in Oxford and Cambridge who travelled to Trinity College Dublin by Steamboat between 1904 -1907 to collect their degrees. They did this because their own universities refused to confer degrees upon women.

In 1904 Trinity College Dublin opened its doors for the first time to women students. This was a ground breaking move but it had unintended consequences. Between 1904 and 1907, 700 female students from colleges in Oxford and Cambridge traveled to Trinity to receive their degrees, because their own universities refused to confer degrees upon women. They traveled to Ireland by Steamboat. And as such became known as “the Steamboat Ladies”. These were pioneering women from the field of academia, science, and humanities, and they went on to have careers that began to shape the newly emerging role of women in politics and society.

First Broadcast: 21st April, 2019