Proposal before Great Britain’s House of Commons would allow fund’s trustees to end all-male policy
The prestigious Rhodes scholarships, which have been reserved for men since they were established in 1902, probably will be available to women beginning next year.
William J. Barber, a professor of economics at Wesleyan University who serves as American secretary of the Rhodes Scholarship Trust, has written to colleges and universities in the United States informing them that “it now appears likely” that the Rhodes trustees will change the trust to make women eligible for the scholarships to be awarded in December, 1976.
Approved by House of Lords
The change will be possible under legislation that Great Britain’s Parliament is expected to enact before the end of this year. It provides, among other things, that educational charities bound by single-sex provisions may petition the Minister of State for Education and Science to change those provisions. The bill has been given final approval by the House of Lords and will be considered by the House of Commons over the next several weeks. Its passage is considered likely.
The British government has said the legislation will be put into effect on Dec. 29, and the Rhodes trustees have indicated they will move quickly to have the single-sex provision changed.
The awards were established by the will of Cecil Rhodes, a British millionaire who made his money in diamonds in South Africa. The will says that among the criteria candidates should meet are “qualities of manhood.” Later the all-male requirement was formalized by an act of Parliament.
The Rhodes trustees award 75 scholarships annually, 32 to citizens of the United States and the rest to scholars from 18 other countries. Each award provides about $5,000 a year for two years of study at Oxford University.
Feminist groups have criticized the Rhodes scholarships in recent years as being one of the most openly discriminatory of all scholarship and fellowship programs. The Women’s Equity Action League for several years has been asking the trustees of the Rhodes scholarships to persuade Parliament to make women eligible.
In addition, several women at American universities have filled out applications for the scholarships but have not been considered by state screening committees.
Mr. Barber also told colleges and universities that application procedures would be changed this year so that candidates would not have to submit official endorsements from their institutions. That change is being made because of a clause in new regulations under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 that are designed to end sex discrimination in a wide range of educational activities.
Opportunities For the Other Sex
The clause specifically exempts foreign wills and trusts from the regulations, but it says that an institution which “administers or assists in the administration of” such single-sex awards should make “available reasonable opportunities for similar studies for members of the other sex.”
Mr. Barber indicated that institutions might interpret the clause to mean that, if they endorsed a successful male candidate for a Rhodes scholarship they would have to provide a similar grant to a woman.
