Is there an old girls’ network? Girls’ schools and recruitment to the British elite

Figures & data

Figure 1. Proportion of men and women in Who’s Who that attended elite schools.

Figure 2. Proportion of men and women in Who’s Who that attended an elite university.

Figure 3. University and elite girls’ schools.

Figure 4. Club membership and gender.

Figure 5. Elite partners among those attending elite schools.

Table

Name of school	Founded	Oxbridge students, 1891-3^1	Top tier or 2nd tier^2	Oxbridge students, 1911-3^1	Top tier or 2nd tier^2	Oxford students, 1901-79	Top 20 Schools^3	Number of pupils in 1950	% Alumni^4	Rank of ratio
Benenden	1923					27	Yes	500^5	0.68	6
Cheltenham Ladies College	1853	10	Top	24	Top	61	Yes	900	0.85	10
Clifton High School for Girls	1877	4	2nd	8	Top	23	Yes	200	1.44	3
King Edward VI High School for Girls	1883	5	2nd	11	Top	50	Yes	500^5	1.25	5
North London Collegiate School	1850	18	Top	10	Top	36	Yes	700	0.64	14
Oxford High School for Girls	1875	7	Top	11	Top	32	Yes	400	1.00	8
Perse School for Girls	1881			8	Top	26	Yes	500^5	0.65	13
Queen’s College, Harley St	1848	6	Top	7	Top	23	Yes	500^5	0.58	16
Roedean	1885	5	2nd	9	Top	33	Yes	300	1.38	4
St Leonards, St Andrews	1877	11	Top	12	Top	30	Yes	480	0.08	11
St Paul’s Girls’ School	1904			17	Top	51	Yes	620	0.11	7
Wycombe Abbey	1896			12	Top	44	Yes	340	0.16	1

1 – The number of Oxbridge student in 1891-3 or 1911-3, taken from Howarth. 2 – Howarth splits these schools into list 1 (top tier) and list B (2^nd tier). To be included in the top tier you needed to have 6 or more students. This same cut off applies to the 1911-3 data too. 3 – Is this school among the 20 most frequently attended schools among Oxford matriculants between 1900-1979. 4 – What is % of their alumni attended Oxford? We calculate this by dividing the number of pupils by the number of year groups and then multiplying by the number of active years between 1900 and 1979. We then divide the number of Oxford matriculants by the total number of graduates over this period. 5 – We do not have data on pupil numbers for all the schools in this list. We have in a few cases estimated the total number of pupils.