Article about St Catharine’s College, founded in 1473, has always insisted on male students wearing a jacket and tie and smart trousers with an academic gown, while women, who were first admitted to the college in 1979, have had to wear a skirt or a dress.
Centuries of tradition has now been overturned thanks to a campaign by a transgender student, who has persuaded the college that women should be allowed to wear trousers and men should be allowed to wear skirts.
St Catharine’s is believed to be the first college at the 800-year-old university to change its formal dress code, though others are now expected to follow suit.
The campaign was led by American Charlie Northrop, 25, who is studying for a PhD in Classics and began transitioning from male to female earlier this year.
She said: "I'm over the moon, it's absolutely wonderful that it's now been passed.
"It wasn't that there was much resistance, it's just the new wording had to be sound and there was a lot of conversations between the college and the committee.
"We had to come up with a way of proposing a new dress code that would omit gender specification but would still keep formality.
"For instance the college wanted to ensure those wearing suits would still wear ties but female suits don't have ties so we've worded it so that if you have buttons down the left side you don't have to wear a tie but down the right side you do."
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Slowly but surely
