The academic and writer, Edith Morley (1875 – 1964), though little-known, led a fascinating life. Her Victorian childhood, repressive though it was in many ways, was blessed with sympathetic and progressive parents, as well as a nanny, who was genuinely interested in the best possible education for her charges.
Morley is celebrated for being the first female professor at an English university; she held the chair of English Language at Reading University from 1908 to 1940, at a time when young women struggled to gain any kind of further education. She is also remarkable for her work with Jewish refugees during and after the Second World War.
In her memoir, Before and After (Two Rivers Press, £9.99), in a new issue edited by Barbara Morris, Morley's descriptions of childhood are lively and informative.
It was difficult at the end of the 19th century for girls to participate in any kind of sport, partly due to the restrictive clothing imposed upon them. Morley yearned for some kind of meaningful physical activity, and wished that she had been born a boy.
When she acquired a bicycle at the age of 21, it proved truly liberating, allowing her freedom to explore London unchaperoned. She even managed to cycle to Paris with her brother, an experience she relished.
Morley believed marriage and motherhood held women back
Getting a university education was a big challenge, and she and a few contemporaries were pioneers in uncharted territory.
Sheer determination, hard work and enlightened tutors made this possible. Morley took great pleasure in learning and was thrilled with the opportunities education gave her. She took nothing for granted.
In her foreword, Mary Beard writes that Morley "was as 'awkward', 'difficult' and 'determined' as any of her twenty-first century successors must be (and we are still described in the same way). Quite simply, she took the establishment on, as feminists have done ever since."
Morley's father was a staunch Conservative, but Morley had an independent mind and spirit. And, though she was brought up in a non-practising Jewish family, she makes no mention of it.
She became politically active at a young age, joining the Fabian Society in 1906, and also became a champion of women's rights, arguing that marriage and motherhood were used to hold women back from professional careers.
