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Queen's was the first university in Canada west of the Maritimes to allow women into its classrooms, and was also early in doing so in international terms. Professor Clarke Murray started the new era at Queen's in 1869 when he offered special English classes for women. This was almost a decade before the University of Toronto or Oxford, for example, held classes for women, and Queen's was also well ahead of most American universities.

At first, women at Queen's were still segregated from men and unable to officially register or obtain degrees; that partly changed in 1876, when women were allowed to enroll with men in some courses. In 1878, all Arts and Science courses were thrown open to women; again, Queen's was well in advance of most other universities.

The first woman to register was the local schoolteacher Elizabeth De St Remy, who signed up in February of 1876. The first two women in Ontario to receive university degrees - Annie Fowler and Eliza Fitzgerald - graduated from Queen's in 1884, Fitzgerald with the gold medal for Classics.

The admission of women did not come without a struggle. A writer at the Queen's Journal reflected the views of many when he wrote condescendingly in 1876: "We are confident that among people who appreciate the delicate grace and beauty of woman's character too much to expose it to the rude influences, the bitterness and strife of the world, few will be found to advocate her admission to universities."

The progressive views of leading professors, notably philosophy professor John Watson, helped to ensure that these views did not hold sway in the Faculty of Arts and Science. But the permanent admission of women to other faculties took considerably longer.

Women were admitted to medical studies at Queen's as early as 1880, but were forced out by disgruntled male students in 1883, and were not readmitted until 1943 (see Women Medical Students, Expulsion of).

It was not until 1942 that women were admitted for the first time to Engineering and Applied Science. The first female students in Theology enrolled in 1940. The Faculties of Law (established in 1957) and Education (established in 1965) were open to women from the start.

Other milestones for women at Queen's were the appointment of the first female member of the academic staff in 1909, when Wilhelmina Gordon became a tutorial assistant in English; the election of Charlotte Whitton as the first female editor of the Journal in 1917; the selection of the first woman registrar, Alice King, in 1930; the election of the first female President of the Alma Mater Society, Dorothy Wardle, in 1941; and the appointment of Hilda Laird as the first woman department head (in a discipline other than nursing) in 1950 (see Department of German).

First female graduates

Queen’s Senate first approved a special English literature course for women in 1869. It was a cloistered class, separate from men and not part of any degree-producing program. Twenty-two women attended, prompting the Senate to add three more courses for women in logic, natural history, and literature.

In 1875, the Senate deemed that women might join male courses “under suitable supervision.” At the request of Elizabeth De St Remy, a head mistress at a Kingston girls' school, the Senate opened a limited number of "ordinary classes" to female enrolment. De St Remy herself became the first woman to register. In fact, she managed somehow to register for a course in Logic on Feb. 1, 1876, six months before the Senate's decision. De St Remy was Queen's 936th student and the first woman listed on the official registry of students, but she did not attend a second year of courses.

By 1880, women were allowed to register in full degree programs. Two women — Eliza Fitzgerald and Annie Fowler — did just that. Ms. Fitzgerald had attempted to enter the University of Toronto but had been turned away by the administration’s contention that her presence on campus would provoke disorder.

Around the same time, women were admitted to study medicine at Queen’s. In their first year, they were taught in a summer session away from male students. Later, with a few more women enrolling, medical classes became co-educational. However, tensions with male students and professors led to the creation, in 1883, of a separate medical college for women at Queen’s.  But the first woman to enrol at Queen’s medical school, Elizabeth Smith, graduated in 1884 with an MD, along with classmates Elizabeth Beatty and Alice McGillivray.

These five female pioneers not only persevered but excelled. Ms. Fitzgerald won the gold medal in classics and Ms. McGillivray won the gold medal in chemistry. Because Chancellor Sandford Fleming had been called to New York on business, it fell to George Grant, as vice-chancellor, to hood the women. Sensing the precedent being set, Chancellor Fleming had gone to Tiffany & Company in New York, where he ordered a specially designed brooch for Ms. Fitzgerald: a silver mortar board with a tassel and a spray of silver bay leaves and berries springing from it inscribed with the words: “Laureated, 1884.” Vice-Chancellor Grant followed suit and ordered a similar pin for Ms. Fowler.

Thus, on April 30, 1884, Queen’s marked the momentous occasion – for the first time, five women received degrees. Principal Grant wrote of the occasion, “The kind heavens send down upon all students the earnest conscientious spirit with which those five women has prosecuted their studies for the last four years!”

The legacy of the first five

Queen’s “famous five” went onto to successful careers:

• Ms. Fitzgerald taught school in Niagara Falls for 54 years.
• Ms. Fowler published five novels and wrote for magazines in Canada, the United States and Britain.
• Dr. Beatty became a medical missionary in India.
• Dr. McGillivray would go onto to teach medicine at Queen’s and then practise in Chicago.
• Dr. Smith would open a practice in Kingston.

In 1984, the university celebrated the 100th anniversary of that momentous convocation by granting honorary degrees to seven women who had excelled in careers ranging from filmmaking to biomedical engineering. Agnes Benidickson (Arts’41) presided over that convocation as the first woman to be elected to the position of university chancellor,