Accelerate Action: Ripon College’s Final Principal
As we mark International Women’s Day, it seemed appropriate to reflect on one of the key figures in the College of Ripon and York St John amalgamation, Principal Marjorie Gage. This year’s theme of ‘Accelerate Action’ was just as relevant in the early 1960s as it is today, with Principal Gage becoming a driving force for change at Ripon College.
Principal Gage became Ripon College’s final Principal in January 1961, and would remain in post until the amalgamation of the two Colleges in 1975. In that time, Principal Gage oversaw the completion of an ambitious building programme, the implementation of the three and four year courses, and the need for College diversification to remain afloat.
A growing College
When Principal Gage began her new post in January 1961, she joined a single sex college on the precipice of change. The College was already at full accommodation capacity, with a total of 235 students. For the first time, 40 students were living ‘out’ with no possibility of living onsite, a situation that marked the end of all students living on the College grounds. What started as necessity actually increased student freedoms, allowing the College to develop into a more modern institution, with more relaxed rules.
Just nine months into her tenure, the College changed once again with the introduction of the three year course in September 1961. Introduced nationally, the new three year course gave trainee teachers more time to develop their skills and a less strenuous timetable. Under Principal Gage it also saw more students accepted than ever before, with more teacher training places available. As a well established single sex College, Ripon College began to support more women than ever before to continue their education and enter teaching as a career.
Centenary changes and celebrations
By September 1963, the three year course was well underway with 370 students and 32 academic staff. In response, the College had transformed. The original 1899 chapel, a fixture of College life since its creation, had been sympathetically converted into a new library. In response, a new chapel had been built, as well as a new hall.
In July 1963, the College celebrated its centenary with over 1000 alumnae attending a celebratory reunion. Alongside alumnae, past and present staff and friends also attended, including Dr Charles Moody. In 1902, Dr Moody, the Cathedral organist, joined the College as Mr Moody the music teacher. For the next 50 years, he directed the musical activities of the College, including heading Choral and Musical Societies. In 1913, he had celebrated the College’s 50th Jubilee! How strange it must have seemed to also celebrate its centenary.
In our Archive, we know that among the alumnae at the centenary reunion was Bertha Walker. Bertha had started her teacher training in 1899, when the original chapel was new and the College had yet to have a female principal. When she left in 1901, she entered a country and workplace very different to that of more recent alumnae. When Bertha left College in the summer of 1901, Queen Victoria had only recently died, women couldn’t vote, and were expected to leave teaching upon marriage. By 1963, Queen Elizabeth II was on the throne, universal suffrage was decades old and women could continue working after marriage.
Generational differences
Life at College was also very different. At the time of the centenary a newspaper article quotes a friend of Bertha, Mrs Goldsack who studied at the College at a similar time. The newspaper claims Mrs Walker ‘rather forcibly expressed her dislike of the new chapel’, something which many subsequent students loved.
“And we were never allowed out on our own, and had to wear gloves every time we went out. If we were seen talking to a man we got a terrible ticking off. Even at dances we had to dance with each other. Now they can go to a club at the local barracks.”
Mrs Warden Goldsack, as quoted in ‘Ripon College’s Centenary Celebration’ newspaper article. Newspaper unknown.
But not everything was so different for the alumnae of 1901 and 1963. It would be another seven years until the Equal Pay Act 1970 was given Royal Assent, an Act which did not come into force until 29 December 1975, the same day as the Sex Discrimination Act 1975. Until this point, there was no legal requirement to pay men and women equally.
But not everyone, it seemed, shared Mrs Goldsack’s sentiments, or wish to reminisce at the reunion. Although we don’t know Bertha’s exact age, by this reunion she was likely in her early 80s. As the oldest alumna to return to the reunion, Bertha’s life represented the changes which had occurred at Ripon College, and more broadly.
‘Her reminiscences were rather abruptly halted by a demand from Miss Walker to “Come along, you are just the same as ever, you never stop talking.”
‘Ripon College’s Centenary Celebration’
Honouring the past and the future
As the sixties drew to a close, Ripon College continued to look to the future. In 1965, the College admitted its first men. Two years later in 1967, students were offered the chance to gain their Bachelor of Education degree by completing a fourth year. However in both cases, uptake was low. In September 1967, the College had 576 students: only 25 were men, and only 6 students were enrolled in the BEd 4th year . It was hoped that by the time the first coeducational cohort reached their final year, that uptake would be higher.
Despite the forward movement, Ripon College continued to honour its past. As the College expanded, the spaces the College required also increased. In 1969 a new Students’ Union building opened to accommodate growing student numbers. Now fondly remembered as ‘The Wilkie’, it was named after Dean Wilkinson, a former Vice-chairman of Ripon College’s Governing Body. A house was also bought, renovated and named the Eva Lett House in remembrance of Ripon College’s first woman Principal. A memorial in the form of a School Practise Library was also well supported by alumni to remember Maud Buysman. Miss Buysman was a College staff member from 1903 to 1946. During her 43 years of service, Miss Buysman inspired students, developed the College, edited the annual alumni magazine, and served as Vice Principal. After her retirement, she had remained a popular member of the College community until her death.
The final years
As the seventies dawned, Principal Gage announced her intention to retire in the near future. As fate would have it, her timing could not have been better. In 1971, Ripon College had some of the best exam results for any College associated with the Leeds Institute. It was also continuing to grow, with 580 students enrolled for the 1971-1972 year. However, despite its popularity at other institutions, only 10 students had completed their BEd in 1971. In comparison, at St John’s in York, 100 students had completed a fourth year to be awarded a degree. Nevertheless, as the seventies began, Ripon College was poised to develop. Unfortunately, government policy had other plans.
North Yorkshire had three teacher training colleges: Ripon College, St John’s College in York and East Riding College in Scarborough. But for several years, the national birth rate had declined, reducing the number of teachers required. Government reports and policy had begun to question the number of teacher training places on offer. It soon became clear that teacher training colleges around the country would need to adapt to survive. The number of places allocated to North Yorkshire wasn’t enough to sustain all three teacher training colleges.
As colleges began to look for solutions, Principal Gage and Principal Barnett from St John’s proposed a radical suggestion. With their shared roots and decades of involvement with one another, they proposed an amalgamation which would reunify their Colleges. The new College would offer a much wider selection of courses, with teacher training becoming one option among many. In late 1974 they finally received government approval, leaving them only a few months to complete the amalgamation.
The end of an era
In Summer 1975, Ripon College closed its doors for the final time. It had 585 students, good examination results and over a century of experience. Principal Gage oversaw one of the College’s most successful eras of growth and expansion. She also had had the foresight to ensure its continuing legacy in a new era by capitalising on the government’s request for more early years, nursery teaching provision.
When the College of Ripon and York St John opened its doors in September 1975, Ripon campus was an equal partner in an exciting new educational era.
Accelerate Action
This year’s theme for International Women’s Day focuses on the importance of taking swift and decisive steps to achieve gender equality. Accelerate Action calls for increased momentum and urgency in addressing systematic barriers and biases faced by women in personal and professional spheres.
The World Economic Forum recently released data that says it will take 133 years, until 2158, to reach full gender parity. The International Women’s Day website says this is around five generations.
Another way to consider 133 years, is to consider the timeline on Ripon College itself. As a standalone college, Ripon College existed for 112 years. During that time, the College worked to address barriers facing women by providing professional teacher training to women from a range of backgrounds. As a single-sex college over a century, the College was a part of massive societal and cultural changes. The College prepared women for the workplace in a period when women were not actively encouraged or empowered to seek professional careers. Although women have always worked, both inside and outside the domestic sphere, Ripon College was a pioneer in supporting women step into a professional role with the chance for higher social standing and pay.
Supporting students and alumnae
When the Past Students Association was formed in the 1890s, the College began to work more closely with its alumnae. The Association provided a vital support network. This included holding regular reunions and smaller, local branch events. Both big and small events helped alumnae stay connected with their peers and created an informal network of support. The annual magazine also provided another layer of support. Many magazines included information about upcoming changes to teaching, and many early editions included suggested reading. The magazines often also included letters from alumnae about their recollections, their careers and their current trajectories. Today, we do something similar with our alumni snapshots and webinars. However unlike today, magazines also included address details of alumnae. It’s likely some alumnae used these to find supportive local networks and opportunities.
When Principal Gage became the final Principal of Ripon College, she worked to break down barriers and biases against herself, her staff and her students. During her tenure as Principal, the College more than doubled in size, improved its exam performance and developed into a modern institution with more student freedom than ever before. For Principal Gage, she entered a College very different to the one entered by Principal Lett, our first female Principal, over 30 years earlier. Whilst Principal Lett entered a system modernising to include more women in leadership positions, Principal Gage entered a College and education system which was used to women wielding authority.
A second shift
But Principal Gage, her staff and her students still faced challenges because of their gender. When the College became co-educational in 1965, its first co-educational cohort faced the possibility of different workplace outcomes because it was not yet law that men and women should be paid the same wage for the same work. Whilst teaching followed regulations around teacher pay, we know that if women decided to start a family, they faced other penalties when attempting to continue their career. Likewise, gendered expectations meant that many of our Ripon alumnae faced a ‘second shift’ on their return home from work, something which sadly has not changed for many women today.
If the World Economic Forum estimates it will take 133 years to reach gender parity, this is nearly the entire length of time that Ripon College, and later Ripon campus, existed. Ripon campus celebrated its 133rd birthday in 1996, just five years before its closure. If gender parity will take as long to reach as almost the entire existence of our Ripon campus, then we have a very long way to go.
For more information about how York St John is working towards gender parity, please see our website.
