The first woman to receive a Cambridge University degree was the Queen Mother, Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon in 1948. The degree was an honorary award presented to Queen Elizabeth, as she was then, to mark the equal academic status for men and women. Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (1900-2002) played a significant role as the wife of a king, followed by the mother of a queen. When she married into the royal family, she did not anticipate becoming a queen, but the actions of others changed the direction of her future. Within months of King Edward VII's death, the heir, Edward VIII, announced his abdication, making Elizabeth's husband King George VI of the United Kingdom.

Until the Queen Mother received her degree, women were not allowed to take exams without special permission, and even then they were not awarded with a degree. Other universities began to offer degrees to women, but Cambridge took much more persuading. After 1948, the university became the last of the big institutions in the UK to offer women the same opportunities as men.

Since then, women have achieved as much as men at Cambridge University, including Dorothy Hodgkin, who as of 2021 is the only British female Nobel laureate recognised for an outstanding contribution to science. Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell discovered the first radio pulsars in 1967 and Nancy Lane Perham became the founding Director of the Women in Science and Engineering Initiative (WiSETI).

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