A talk by Dr Patricia Fara on ‘A lab of one’s own: Cambridge Women in The First World War’

The First World War was a national event with local implications. As in other major towns, Cambridge residents provided hospital care for the wounded, suffered chronic privation and witnessed women successfully carrying out jobs usually reserved for men. As one of the earliest universities to offer education for women, Cambridge was also the source of some extraordinary female scientists, doctors and engineers who helped to ensure victory. Confronting danger, prejudice and disease, they took responsibility in factories, laboratories and hospitals, both at home and overseas. After the Armistice, as returning soldiers reclaimed their positions, the old stereotypes returned and women were squeezed out once again. But Britain had changed forever: now the country knew that women were fully capable of taking over work traditionally performed by men. 

Patricia Fara, an Emeritus Fellow of Clare College, has an Oxford degree in physics and is a historian of science. Formerly President of the British Society for the History of Science, she is currently President of the Antiquarian Horological Society and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. As well as academic lecturing and supervising, she writes popular books and articles, and is a regular contributor to In our Time and other radio/TV programmes. Her most recent book is Life after Gravity: Isaac Newton’s London Career (2021), while her prize-winning Science: A Four Thousand Year History (2009) has been translated into nine languages.