Memories of Bedford social life

In this project I am interested in exploring the experience of the Bedford College alumni during the change from an all-female to co-educational university in 1965. During her childhood, my mum’s school went from being all-girls to co-educational when she was there, and she has often mentioned it as an important moment in her school life. Because of this, I feel the women who were already students at the college in 1965 may have some interesting (through being similar or contrasting) memories of this time in their studies. In particular, I would hope to find out about the social lives and attitudes of the students at the time. Would the female and male students socialise outside of their classes, and if so how meaningful were the relationships formed? Did any of the interviewees have strong opinions – positive or negative – on the change, and if so do they still hold them? Was the change even significant to the students?

By looking at this, I hope to find out about attitudes to gender roles in the mid-1960s, and the interaction between memories of this time and ideas about gender held by the alumni now. I think it would be interesting (if possible) to try and find out about the attitudes of the students’ parents to the change, and to look at any potential comparison between contemporary accounts (i.e. diaries/letters), and the memories recalled by the alumni now.