About us

In the early part of the nineteenth century, student members of the University of Oxford were restricted in the matters they could discuss and the opinions they could air. Tired of the curtailment of their freedom of speech, twenty five young men met near the end of 1822 and established a set of Rules that would govern a new Society and in March 1823 the ‘United Debating Society’ was born. Its first ever debate, held on the fifth of April, would be on the State, the monarchy, and democracy, subjects which would be debated time and again across the next two centuries:

Was the revolution under Cromwell to be attributed to the tyrannical conduct of Charles, or to the democratic spirit of the time?

As Union members began to grow in number, it became clear that holding debates in college rooms would no longer be an option and plans were discussed to create a more permanent location for the Society’s activities. The university, however, had taken note and made its disapproval very clear. In the months that followed, so too did the London papers, criticising the motions debated as well as the participants – a tradition that has lived on, now extended to student run newspapers, too.

During 1825, debate motions became more ‘mischievous’ and it also became clear that the quality of discussion would be limited by the lack of a mechanism to fine ‘boyish’ interrupters. On the third of December that year a motion to dissolve The United Debating Society was passed, to the delight of many in the university. Yet, two days later, The Oxford Union Society was re-born and re-committed to challenging, informing and educating through open debate and civil discourse ever since.

Nonetheless, despite The Union’s re-invention so soon after its original founding, its identity as a forum to uphold free speech has never been questioned. For this reason, in the years that followed all property and books that were first issued under the auspices of The United Debating Society were stamped with the year 1823, as a nod to the true year in which The Oxford Union’s prevailing purpose was first realised.

Once established, the Union’s early presidents set about not only selecting debates, but cementing the Society’s place in the University. Foremost amongst The Union’s early presidents was William Ewart Gladstone, whose leadership took the Union into its second decade and whose cabinet table still stands in the room named after him. He would become the first of many Prime Ministers who honed their debating skills in the Union, becoming an MP just months after his Presidency ended.

In 1857 the first buildings were erected, and the present Old Library served as the debating chamber. On its walls are Pre-Raphaelite murals depicting scenes from Arthurian legend, painted by a team of artists including Dante Gabriel Rosetti, Edward Burne-Jones, and William Morris.

Quickly outgrowing the first chamber, however, in 1879 the Union built a separate debating chamber. The main buildings would expand as well, to include a new library and large dining room. Great names would come to dominate Union politics through these later Victorian years, from Asquith and Salisbury to Curzon, Lang and Belloc.

By the Union’s centenary in 1923, it was an active and important part of University life. The passage of Union men into the Church, the Bar and the Houses of Parliament was not only regular, but common. Harold Macmillan would become Librarian in 1914, but the First World War halted all Union activity. A great many members died during the war, and a stone tablet records the names of a few of them, above the President’s chair in the chamber.

During its second century the Union saw some of its most famous moments, and underwent some of its greatest changes. It saw national attention in 1933 when the House voted for the motion,

This House Would Under No Circumstances Fight for its King and its Country. Lights of the political world of the later nineteenth century were active during this time; Edward Heath, Tony Benn, Michaels – both Foot and Heseltine – all took the President’s chair. Many members would in fact go on to fight for King and Country in the Second World War. Their names too are recorded in the Union’s chamber, and for a debate close to 11 November each year, the Officers replace their traditional debate carnations with red poppies.

See 'Notable Debates'

A great and positive change came in 1963; after several decades of struggle, women were admitted as members for the first time. Judith Okely of St Hilda’s college led the campaign, and was the first female member. Four years later, Geraldine Jones of St Hugh’s was elected the first female President, to be followed in time by a great many others. 2022 saw the first debate in which every single speech was delivered by a woman.

See 'Women in The Union'

Since 1923, the number of individual guests who come to the Union to speak, and often answer tough questions, has increased greatly. Richard Nixon spoke to a packed chamber in 1978, uttering the line, ‘I screwed it up, and I paid the price’. His fellow Presidents Carter and Reagan would visit, as would Mother Teresa, the Dalai Lama, Sir Winston Churchill, Albert Einstein and Queen Elizabeth II, alongside hundreds of other stars of global politics, acting, sport and business. Their photos still adorn the walls of the bar, as do photographs of generations of Union Committees throughout the Union’s buildings.

When Millicent Fawcett became the first woman to address the Oxford Union in 1908, members sat at her feet, crowding the floor and gangways of a packed chamber. Though Fawcett’s proposition, that The Government should be urged to remove the electoral disabilities of women, lost, it did so narrowly. The 31 vote margin was perhaps a testament not only to her arguments but to the changing tide of opinion. The debate was repeated just one year later, and again in 1912, with no female speakers. In 1922 a motion to extend suffrage finally passed, but whilst the Union on the brink of its centenary apparently supported universal female suffrage — in principle —it would be a further forty years before women would be welcomed to the Society on equal terms.

In the Michaelmas of 1926, Lucy Sutherland became the first female undergraduate to speak in the chamber, and the third female president of the Somerville Debating Society. Student journalists for The Isis commented that ‘they were almost converted’, despite strongly disapproving of ‘ladies speaking in the House’. Her opposition to the motion that ‘Women’s Colleges Should Be Razed To the Ground’ nonetheless failed.

Around fifteen women would speak in the Union in the first half of the twentieth century. Though the speeches themselves were often met with praise, the speakers themselves were often pigeonholed. Observations from Union members of the time show women could not escape the perception that they were successful only when either copying men, or when cartoonishly feminine. A 1941 debate record measures a female speaker as ‘quite as good as men’, whilst three years earlier a surprised observer considered one woman ‘the embodiment of arguments for admitting women as debating members’. Yet there was still much work to be done to overcome the supposition that women only sought a competitive advantage when debating by using their ‘feminine wiles’. For instance, in 1937 a Miss Ethel Mannin was said to have made ‘very good use’ of her gender on the basis that she proceeded to wave a handkerchief during a debate, a gesture clearly designed to ‘captivate’ her audience.

During this time, very few women used the chamber as a pulpit for their own cause, but instead organised a separate women’s debating club, first in 1931 and again in 1949. In the 1940s, one campaign saw pamphlets in support of female membership thrown from the gallery at the request of the President. In 1961, students Jenny Grove and Rose Dugdale disguised themselves as men to gain entry to the chamber, writing to the President afterwards to thank him for his hospitality. Whether a great many women actually sought membership at any time is of course unknown; David Walter’s Playground of Power notes that one woman present admitted that she campaigned on principle rather than through any desire to become a member.

During the 1950s, female speakers including Shirley Williams became more regular, speaking once or twice per term. However, as women made more appearances in the term cards, the Union’s debating focus turned inwards, as the fight over female membership became the dominant issue of the post-war period.

In his history of the Society published for its centenary in 1923, Herbert Morrah (Ex-President 1894–95, St John’s College) memorably quipped that whilst women were not suited to debating, they had ‘always been welcome in the gallery’. The extension of any further rights to women was consistently controversial, and over the last century, every stage of women’s involvement in the Union has been challenged. In 1934, the first debate was held on whether women ought to have so-called ‘Third Class membership’, which would allow them to enter the Union premises for tea during certain times. Though originally opposed, this was eventually accepted in 1935; at the same time, women were also welcomed as guests to meals in the Union restaurant. Max Beloff (Ex-Librarian) then proposed that women be admitted to Second Class membership, which entitled them to attend and speak in debates. Crucially, this did not permit them to vote, nor become substantive members but Beloff welcomed the prospect of debate speakers motivated by ideals other than their own electoral success. The idea was vehemently opposed. Whilst a motion granting women debating membership in fact passed through the House on two separate occasions in 1959 and 1961, each time it was later overturned by a second motion and a poll of the members respectively.

Throughout this period, the reasons put forward to oppose permitting the membership of women varied considerably. The great traditions of the Oxford Union were created and owned by men, it was argued, and any admission of women would threaten its great history. During the war, members were urged to vote against women’s debating membership in order to preserve the Society for the return of their peers who were away fighting. Others stressed the Oxford Union’s place as a sanctuary, raising concerns that the admission of women would interrupt the atmosphere of debates and that the Society’s facilities would be overrun with ‘chatter’ and ‘eternally occupied by nylons, high-heeled shoes and an aura of scent’. Indeed, during the debate on full membership, much discussion surrounded the problem of overcrowding – would women swarm the bar or simply allow their male friends to buy their drinks? The objection by far the most emphasised, by men and women alike, was women’s perceived inherent unsuitability for debate. Whilst Edward Heath once argued that women have no original contributions, others expressed concerns that their voices would simply not be heard across the chamber. Letters in The Isis argued that debate was unnecessary — women need not further display their intellectual shortcomings. Even the first female officer, Janet Morgan (Ex-Secretary, Trinity 1966 – St Hugh’s College), later commented that she believed men to be ‘better in debate than women’.

Whilst private objections were undoubtedly deep-rooted, the true nature of the actual debates on the admission of women on equal terms as men may be somewhat more difficult to ascertain. A truth often left unaddressed is the fact that when it comes to the formal debates, it is now difficult to know the seriousness of many of these objections, or the extent to which some speakers were driven by throwaway one-liners aimed at laughs and electoral favour. Perhaps students really were concerned that women would flood both the writing rooms with teary love letters, and the ballot boxes with their assessments of gentlemen candidates’ good looks. Both these suggestions were put to the House, and whilst they may well embody cruelly sexist attitudes of the time, they may similarly reflect the pedestrian misogyny of rowdy student debate on a dark Thursday evening.

In the early 1960s, a breakthrough would be reached, only to be delayed — as many things are in the Union — by the almighty Rules. A 1961 poll on debating membership at last saw a majority in favour of women. However, a supermajority was needed to amend this particular provision. In Michaelmas 1962, when Michael Beloff KC was President, over two-thirds of the House agreed that women should be permitted to become debating members. In Hilary term of that academic year (1962-63) Lydia Howard (then chair of the Labour Club) became the first female ‘debating member’ to make a floor speech.

The admission of women as full members followed quickly on the heels of debating membership, through the means of two polls. The first fell just five votes short of the required two-thirds majority, a result attributed not to undergraduates but to the opposition of older, life members who returned to vote. A second poll in February of 1963 finally succeeded and during the Presidency of Girish Karnad, the Union passed a resolution to allow women to have full membership for the first time and, after leading the campaign for female membership, Judith Okely of St Hilda’s became the first woman to join The Union on equal membership terms with men with the proposed changes literally cut and pasted into a 1963 copy of the rules that is still preserved in the archives today.

Yet despite gaining the right to full membership, the fight for full equality was still not yet won. Janet Morgan became the Society’s first female officer, admitting later that she had originally run out of curiosity. She would later become Treasurer and undertook her roles in a self-proclaimed ‘womanly way’, including taking time to help the Steward choose flowers, food and wine for debate dinners each week. Our first female president, Geraldine Jones (St Hugh’s College), was elected shortly afterwards, serving as President in Hilary 1968. Her victory which carried more than 700 votes allowed her to assert her mandate confidently, although she commented that her margin was likely greater than it would have been, were she a man. Jones was in fact elected on her second presidential run. She speculated in an interview printed in the Cherwell newspaper at the time that an Ex-Treasurer had told her that her election hinged on changing the type of sleeves she wore, or more specifically, hiding her ‘fat arms’(!) Regardless, Jones’ farewell debate ‘Vive la Difference’ [captured in the photograph above] perhaps illustrates her seemingly pragmatic approach to the achievement. Thirty eight women have followed Jones as President in the 56 years that followed her term of office, most famously Benazir Bhutto, later Prime Minister of Pakistan (assassinated in December 2007), whose portrait hangs in our chamber today. We should also mention that in Michaelmas 1976, when Richard Norton, 8th Baron Grantley, was President, there were three women officers for the very first time in the Union's history: Librarian Vivien Dinham, Treasurer Benazir Bhutto and Secretary Victoria Schofield.

Over the last half century women’s contributions have ensured our place in the Society’s rich history. In 1998, the Union was led by three subsequent female presidents, a first in our history, by Clare Dixon KC (Ex-President, Hilary 1998 - St Anne's), Eleanor Blagbrough (Ex-President, Trinity 1998 - St Hilda's), who presided over the Union's 175th anniversary celebrations, and Dr Helen Eastman (Ex-President, Michaelmas 1998 - Corpus Christi). Just over a decade later, Laura Winwood (Ex-President, Trinity 2010 – Hertford College) presided over one of her debates dressed as a man as a deliberate nod to Grove and Dugdale’s rebellion 50 years earlier, during her own ‘Women’s Initiative’ to inspire greater female participation; one year later, from Michaelmas 2011 to Trinity 2012, The Union was again led by three subsequent female presidents.

Almost a decade later, Hilary 2020 saw both the first all-female team of officers under Sara Dube (St Hugh’s College), and the first election in which all successful candidates for Librarian, Treasurer and Secretary were female as well as the candidate for President, Beatrice Barr, who served in Michaelmas 2020 (St Peter’s College). In Hilary 2018, Laali Vadlamani (Trinity college) chaired the first debate in which all paper speakers were women, and in 2022 — sixty years after women achieved debating membership — I was delighted and extremely moved to preside over the first debate in which all speeches, including from floor speakers, were given by women on 10th March 2022.

It is no exaggeration to say the story of women in the Union’s history is one of resolve and, at times, real courage. As Millicent Fawcett demonstrated over a century ago, it is also a story in the finest of Union traditions — one of great oratory and convicted debate. As the last female president of our first 199 years, I look to the future with a great deal of optimism and to a Union where we continue to uphold free speech for all.