Professor A. David Smith (1959, Biochemistry) was a member of the Christ Church Governing Body between 1971 and 1984, which covers the period when women were first admitted to the College as Official Students and subsequently as undergraduates. At a gathering of alumni in Sweden, to mark the 500th Anniversary last year, David reflected:

"As one of the oldest members here today, I thought you might like to hear my reminiscences about the decision to admit women. I was a member of the Governing Body from 1971-1984, which included the time that the decision was made to permit the election of a woman as an Official Student and shortly thereafter the decision to admit women as undergraduates. The minutes of the Governing Body for this period are still sealed and so I have to rely on my memory, which is not, of course, infallible.

In the early 1970s we often discussed between ourselves the anomaly that women could not become Official Students even though the University appointed women as University Lecturers and Professors. We raised this matter at least once in the Governing Body, to be told by a senior History tutor that there were procedural and legal reasons why such an appointment would not be possible. The legal reasons were not divulged but they may have been based on an old Statute, still then in existence, which stated "A woman may not become a Member of the House." [Statute 1.2 1963] But it also seemed that a few members were unhappy with the idea of having women as colleagues and they supported the history tutor.

A group of us, younger members, discussed possible tactics and we thought it might help to change minds if women academic guests were allowed to dine at High Table. The decision to permit this was made in the early 1970s and it was implicit that one could not invite one’s own wife or fiancée. But for some time no one took advantage of this decision, so finally Simon Preston kindly offered to invite my fiancée (now, my wife), Dr Ingegerd Östman, an academic from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm who was doing research in Oxford at the time. Ingegerd was invited and was placed next to the Dean at High Table and then next to the Senior Censor at dessert. I could see that she was very much the centre of attention and when I asked her afterwards what she thought of the food, she said that she had hardly time to eat anything as so many people were engaging her in conversation. The Senior Censor told her that she might well be the first woman to dine at High Table after Queen Elizabeth 1st, Queen Anne, Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth 2nd. In other words, the first ‘non-royal’ woman to dine, which would explain some of the excitement. Other invitations to women academics followed.

The reluctance to discuss the idea of electing a woman Official Student at Governing Body continued during the 1970s. Occasional attempts to raise the matter got nowhere because the senior History Tutor raised his usual procedural objection and so it never made it onto the agenda. Then one day, my adjacent colleague, Tutor in French, whispered to me that the History Tutor was absent (it was thought he was at Epsom for the Derby) so we jointly proposed that at the next meeting of Governing Body there should be a substantive motion to permit the election of women to the Studentship. This was widely supported and at the next meeting the motion was approved by a large majority, against the objections of the History Tutor.

In 1979, the Governing Body elected its first woman as an Official Student, Dr Judith Pallott, as Tutor in Geography. (A fine portrait of her now hangs in Hall.)  One year later, in 1980, women were admitted as undergraduates. Today, the House has a woman as Head of the College and one-third of the Governing body are women."