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Celebrating St Peter's Women

8 March 2022

Westfield College, founded in London in 1882, was a pioneering women’s college that faced opposition to offering a university education to women at all. Between 1939 and 1945, the women of Westfield College took up residence in St Peter’s as wartime evacuees from their London home. Throughout World War II, they made the St Peter’s estate their own. These pioneering and inspiring women who lived and learned at St Peter's long before St Peter’s admitted women as matriculated students remind us both of the case for higher education for all and of the imperative to offer hospitality to those in need in times of war.
A group photo of women in a College quad

This International Women’s Day, here are just a few inspiring St Peter’s College stories of women who broke barriers by becoming the ‘first’ at St Peter’s and around the world. This list is only the start. Share your story with us at communications@spc.ox.ac.uk.

Gallery

View the captions for the images in the gallery below to read more about these inspiring St Peter's women who broke barriers by becoming the ‘first’ at St Peter’s and around the world.

Westfield College, founded in London in 1882, was a pioneering women’s college that faced opposition to offering a university education to women at all. Between 1939 and 1945, the women of Westfield College took up residence in St Peter’s as wartime evacuees from their London home. Throughout World War II, they made the St Peter’s estate their own. These pioneering and inspiring women who lived and learned at St Peter's long before St Peter’s admitted women as matriculated students remind us both of the case for higher education for all and of the imperative to offer hospitality to those in need in times of war. Image courtesy of the St Peter's College Archives
A group photo of women in a College quad
In 1979, 20 undergraduate women matriculated for the first time at St Peter’s College.
Matriculation photo from 1979
Emeritus Fellow Prof Christine Greenhalgh (Fellow and Tutor in Economics) became the first woman to serve as fellow at St Peter’s College that same year. Prof Greenhalgh’s portrait by Tom Croft hangs in the College Dining Hall.
Prof Christine Greenhalgh
In 1991/1992, Joanna (Holt) Zonneveld (Modern Languages, 1990), or 'Jo Holt' as she was known in her days as a student, was the first woman to serve as JCR (Junior Common Room) President.
Joanna (Holt) Zonneveld
In 2001, Karen-Mae Hill (now the High Commissioner for Antigua and Barbuda) began her MPhil in Development Studies at St Peter’s College. She was the first Antiguan to win a Rhodes Scholarship. Her portrait by Fran Monks hangs in the College Dining Hall.
Karen-Mae Hill
In 2015, the Rt Revd Libby Lane (Theology, 1986) became the first woman to be made a Bishop in the Church of England. Her portrait, painted by Tom Croft, hangs in the College Dining Hall.
Bishop Libby Lane painting
In 2019, Prof Judith Buchanan became the first woman to be elected Master of the College.
Prof Judith Buchanan
In 2021, Tanya Watson (Chemistry, 2021) became the first woman representing Ireland to qualify for the Olympic Games, making it through to the semi-finals in the postponed 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. In 2022, she became the first female diver to qualify and dive for Team Northern Ireland in the Commonwealth Games at Birmingham. Watson also dove for Ireland in the European Championships in Rome in 2022, where, in yet another first, she competed in the Platform Final (10m) alongside Ciara McGing—the first time two divers representing Ireland competed in an international final.
Tanya Watson in the Olympics
In 2022, the founding chair of the Department of Cardiac Surgery at the Smidt Heart Institute, Dr Joanna Chikwe, MD (Medicine, 1994), became the first woman to serve as editor-in-chief of the Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) journal, Annals of Thoracic Surgery. Dr Chikwe’s portrait by Fran Monks hangs in the College Dining Hall.
Dr Jo Chikwe
In 2022, Professor Lavanya Rajamani, Professor of International Environmental Law in the Faculty of Law, University of Oxford, and Yamani Fellow and Tutor in Public International Law at St Peter’s College, University of Oxford, was selected to deliver the third annual Heilbron Lecture. Prof Rajamani was the first to give the lecture in person at the Old Bailey. The event marked 50 years since Dame Rose Heilbron QC, the lecture’s namesake, became the first woman judge to sit at the Old Bailey. Next 100 Years and also Marcus Jamieson-Pond
Prof Lavanya Rajamani lecturing at the Old Bailey
In 2023, College tortoise Aristurtle won our hearts twice over! She claimed Best in Show in the 2023 Cherwell Pet Show and won the 2023 College Tortoise Race. We believe this is the first time A St Peter's College tortoise has claimed either title!
A tortoise
In 2024, the doors to Westfield House, one of the College's two new accommodation buildings, opened to student residents. A first for St Peter's College, the name of the building was selected by popular vote. Students and employees selected the name Westfield House in honour of the women of Westfield College, London, who relocated to St Peter's during World War II. (c) Edmund Blok
a brick building