Oxford in Wartime

This chapter introduces the remaining women—Iris Murdoch, Mary Scrutton (later Midgley), and Gertrude Elizabeth Margaret Anscombe (Elizabeth to her friends)—and describes the state of women’s education in Oxford leading up to and during World War II. Somerville College, where all but Anscombe attended, was at that time one of the most selective institutions in the British Empire. This was due not only to its reputation within Oxford, but also to its small enrollment and the limited number of women’s colleges in general. Despite Somerville’s selectivity, the women still faced disadvantages. Oxford still treated its women as “on probation,” and few women had received the education in classical languages that was a gateway to the prestigious “Greats” degree. During the war, however, as Oxford was drained of fighting-age men, women students were able to benefit from more intensive mentoring and other learning opportunities formerly directed toward men.