Tag: Oxford University

Challenging Tradition

Many moons ago…back in the early 90s when I was transitioning, I had an online transwoman friend who lived in England, was blind, and had attended one of the colleges at Oxford.  I don’t recall which college it was, but it was definitely Men Only at the time.  It was Men Only to the point that it refused to recognize any graduates which may have transitioned from male to female, preferring to remove them from the historical list.

I am sure my friend is amazed at how tradition has now been altered at Oxford University.  Amid concerns that its strict academic dress code was unfair to transgender students, Oxford has adopted new regulations removing the requirement that students wear ceremonial clothing specific to their gender.

That is, male-born people will be allowed to sit exams in skirts and stockings and women-born people will have the option of wearing suits and bow ties.