What's the girls equivalent of Eton & why?

[Dinaprettyballerina]

Just out of interest which English girls school is the one all sharp elbowed parents are trying to get their girls into? Eton has a reputation for having the pushiest parents with alot of overseas parents who are extremely invested in getting the very best education & getting their child in at all costs.. what is the female equivalent?

Maggie Thatcher studied Chemistry at Ox or Cambridge.
Clever lady obviously.

It's a tough question. Eton isn't as hard to get into as some of the London super-selectives.

I'd put Wycombe Abbey in the super-selective category too. I drive past it fairly regularly and it always looks a bit wedged in on the delights of the Wycombe hill. But an excellent reputation.

I was amused by the not Englishy enough anecdote. Two of my friends' kids board and there is a generous proportion of overseas students.

I think one of the key points here is that going into politics is not necessarily the choice of the brightest and best any more (if it ever was). I was at one of the named schools, Oxbridge, City career. Of my year at school about 25% went to Oxbridge, but I don’t think anyone went into politics. That attracts a certain type - one or two idealists who genuinely want to make a difference, but a lot who just liked the sound of their own voice! Unpopular though it is, I think the really successful girls from school are those who are doing what men even now don’t often need do do - juggling a successful career and running a home/bringing up well-rounded and happy children. I’m not sure therefore that it’s possible to make a straight comparison with Eton as (rightly or wrongly) success still looks so different for men and women.

Roedean and Benenden

St Pauls is one of the Girls' Day School Trust Schools. All those schools certainly educate girls to take a full part in the world and not play second fiddle to anyone.

MPs? MPs are from a huge variety of backgrounds.

Is St Paul's really a GDST school?

@eastegg MPs really aren't from a huge variety of backgrounds. Most come from privileged backgrounds and go into different careers.

A quick Google search tells me that 48% of MPs were privately educated. That is not representative of the country. I understand the national picture, it's around the 7% of children are privately educated

@Rhaenys
Marlborough is renowned for producing wives (I went there!).
Cameron, Osborne, Kate Middleton. Grades are okay but nowhere near the others I mentioned above and not obvious political heft on either the boys’ or girls’ side.

No. The girls’ and boys’ schools were founded by the Mercers.

Boris Johnson's wife went to Godolphin and Latymer, a selective private girls' day school in Hammersmith.

Personally I didn't like St. Paul's Girls' school, academically very pushy and uncaring of girls who fell by the academic wayside. It wasn't unheard of for girls to go on to Oxbridge and then have nervous breakdowns - having been told that they are the best of the best for so long they are disappointed to find that, once there, they are just one of many bright women. However this is my view from when my own girls were of school age when this was the case under one particular head teacher.
Why are co-ed schools like Malborough being excluded from this discussion? At this stage of the developments of women's place in society it is surely better for them to be educated with men, so that they get much the same education (which is currently often better suited for leadership roles than that in single sex establishments)?

I know a very successful family where the father went to Eton and the mother to Cheltenham Ladies. Their choices for their children have been Wycombe Abbey and Charterhouse and both of their offspring have been very "successful" in conventional careers. It would be interesting to know the choices of old students of these stuffy establishments.
Personally I don't see Oxbridge and professional careers to be the "be all and end all" for children, male or female. So many professionals such as lawyers seem to work 80 hour weeks and have nannies for their own children, often only actually being at home and seeing them at weekends.

I had hoped that many of us had reached the point where climbing the greasy professional career pole was not the only ambition for bright women. In my generation (born in the 50's) we could have a career and a family life too, fortunately we had the choice but today it seems to be all or nothing.
As for MP's, so many of them seem to be cast from the traditional mould. They really have a pretty easy life compared with working professionals, nice long holidays, outside jobs if they want them, and their own brand of "celebrity". I have respect for few of them.

My brother went to Eton, I went to Cheltenham., in the late 70s/early 80s. Both of us had scholarships.

At the time Cheltenham was considered the most academic private girls school, alongside St. Pauls - which as a day school in London was not an option as we didn't live in London.

It was painfully obvious that the standard of education and opportunities at CLC were not nearly as high as my sibling got at Eton.

I hope it has changed, but I doubt it ...

Plenty of evidence that when girls and boys are in the same class the teachers give the boys more attention, either because of their disruptive behaviour or because they talk over girls. Single-sex education consistently has better academic outcomes for girls, and they are also insulated from the unwanted sexual attention and touching many adolescent boys try to force on girls in school.

I don't know how single-sex boys' schools compare with co-ed schools in terms of the outcomes for boys.

Hmm.. it’s not helpful to mythologise educational establishments whether to glamorise or demonise. I don’t know any Old Paulina who had a nervous breakdown.

In my day 50% of the year went to Oxbridge every year, and more could have gone. You’re always one of many, many bright students. It teaches above the external exam standard and expects students to be able to do their own research, so the shift to Oxbridge is smooth. In fact, I found the relative standard of students at school higher than at Oxbridge.

However, it takes a hell of a lot more to get to Oxbridge from an underachieving comprehensive than from any of the top independents. Oxbridge is rightly recognising that more fully now.

Eton is a very different kind of school - much more socially, culturally and politically conservative. It’s famous as much for its social status as academic.

If it produces a lot of politicians, mainly Tory, how many are actually any good? Three successive OEs have fucked up the country.

Hmm.. it’s not helpful to mythologise educational establishments whether to glamorise or demonise. I don’t know any Old Paulina who had a nervous breakdown.

IrisVersicolor I agree but it happens a lot on here - such as on this thread. Etonians are always thick and are judged on Boris, David Cameron and now Kwasi Kwarteng.

I’d be interested to hear views on Mark Fisher & Tam Dalyell, two former Labour MPs who went to Eton.
Were they also thick because they went to Eton, or does the fact they had the sense to become Labour MPs cancel out the Etonian aspect?

I read that as 'Truss was a state.'

Were they also thick because they went to Eton, or does the fact they had the sense to become Labour MPs cancel out the Etonian aspect?

My late DF was a friend of one of these, and I can confirm that it's because they had the sense to become Labour.

I too felt that Cambridge was diluted after Spgs, which - despite its many flaws - was full of very clever people

Nobody.should work.an.eighty - hour week unless unavoidable. I don't believe that lawyers can ever need to.

Stowe

Stowe? Really? I thought that was more about ability to pay rather than ability.

Stowe, Marlborough etc don’t count as they are boys schools which now take girls. The real female equivalent of Eton is a girls only school. QM is the northern equivalent.

Yes Glendower very posh.. With Sunak's daughters & Harper Beckham... Rishi's eldest daughter has moved on to secondary, I wonder if she went to Winchester like her dad now they're accepting girls...