fuckyeahgenderstudies:

On my gender-neutral housing list page, i’ve been saying for ages that i don’t know how admissions etc. works at all-women’s colleges in the UK (like at Cambridge). It’s been bugging me for so long that, after some discussion about despotic admissions rules at US “women’s colleges” last week, i thought i’d just write to them and find out myself.

Cambridge has three women’s colleges, Newnham, Lucy Cavendish and Murray Edwards (formerly New Hall). I have contacted the admissions team at all three asking about how their amdissions policies view trans* applicants. So far i’ve only heard back from Newnham but it’s good news! Trans women are not excluded from the college. There are no “legally female” type loopholes to jump through—identifying and living as a woman is enough. 

Newnham has something of a history of supporting trans women. In 1997 staff and students supported Rachael Padman, a trans woman who had been appointed as a fellow of the college and was subsequently outed and attacked by colleague and huge transphobe Germaine Greer. The college stood by Padman and it was Greer who ended up resigning.