A feminine enrolment : recovering women students of Massey Agricultural College, 1932-1963 : a research essay presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Bachelor of Arts with Honours in History at Massey University

Abstract

Massey Agricultural College is the forerunner of what is now Massey University, an institution spread across three cities competing with other New Zealand universities on an equal footing. Its modest and limited beginnings in the 1920s could not have anticipated the University today, most markedly that women students could equal, or even outnumber, men. The women students of the early College were a small and enigmatic group, hidden amongst the pages of archives. Tantalisingly a name is mentioned here and there. It is this largely overlooked group of women I hope to reveal to a degree - this 'feminine enrolment'. The purpose of this research is threefold. First, to reveal the kinds of women who would enter an agricultural college, juxtaposing them against the general expectations of women at the time to see if their experiences and aspirations differed from that of their peers. Second, to explore the College's attitudes to and expectation of these students. And, foremost, to give a voice to these 'others' at Massey Agricultural College, which was overwhelmingly a young, rural-male domain. Within the limits of this paper tentative insights will emerge into broader issues surrounding women's educational opportunities and practice and the significance of gender in society at the time.--From Introduction