The Lady Visitors at Queen's College: From the Back of the Class to a Seat on the Council

Queen's College in London's Harley Street was founded in 1848 by Frederick Denison Maurice. Together with other professors from King's College London he began the venture for the education of middle-class girls, which was "greeted with prejudice and ridicule." Originally planned as an institution for training governesses, it was decided at the first meeting of the committee to admit other girls and young women to its lectures. However, although the college was designed for women it was administered by men. Unlike other girls' schools in the middle of the century which were managed by governing bodies (St. Mary's Hall, Brighton) or a central council (the Girls' Public Day School Company) the government of Queen's College was a male dominated hierarchy of Council, Committee of Education, both of which were entirely male and the Lady Visitors who sat at the back of classes and whose maximum influence (officially) was in the form of written advice to the Education Committee. Yet by 1950 the Council consisted of eight women (including the principal, Miss Kynaston), and five men. In this article, the author suggests that the role of the Lady Visitor is one which should be reconsidered, and awarded more significance in the history of women's educational administration, by tracing the gradual incursion of women from the periphery to the centre of administration at Queen's College. The author argues that they managed this by using a rhetoric of social maternalism within a rigidly patriarchal environment. (Contains 32 notes.)