Emily Davies

Sarah Emily Davies (22 April 1830 – 13 July 1921) was an English feminist who founded Girton College, Cambridge. She campaigned as a suffragist and for women's rights to university education. In her early life, she attended meetings of the National Association for the Promotion of Social Science and befriended Barbara Bodichon and Elizabeth Garrett Anderson. After moving to London with her mother in 1862, she wrote for and edited the English Woman's Journal and joined the Langham Place Group. She co-founded the London Schoolmistresses' Association and the Kensington Society, which pressured for universal suffrage, although she herself believed only unmarried women and widows should gain the vote. After resigning from Girton in 1904, Davies became secretary of the London branch of the National Society for Women's Suffrage, later leaving to join the Conservative and Unionist Women's Franchise Association. She died in London at the age of 91. During her lifetime, Davies' rigid views on education were controversial whilst recently historians have seen her achievements in a more sympathetic light. In 2019, Baroness Hale unveiled a blue plaque jointly commemorating founders Emily Davies and Barbara Bodichon, to mark the 150th anniversary of Girton College.