...to be literally speechless after reading this?

[CSLewis]

https://apple.news/AxiPl_cmVRTeudBZ6Kc4mRg

so they changed the male only colleges to mixed and then left the women's only ones as women's only? Doesn't seem fair somehow?

Yes because us folk with XY chromosomes are a really disadvantaged group...

Murray Edwards is a Cambridge college, not a university in its own right. The college's function as the home base of students, they study in the faculty of their choice but are organised and housed by the college (which is where they make their applications). There are three all female colleges. AFAIK, they all (but certainly at least one of them) started to teach before women were even allowed to take their degrees. Rosalind Franklin received the highest mark in the whole university for her maths exam but was not awarded a degree. Not until a while later anyway. Furthermore, Newnham has its own laboratory, now defunct, because women were not allowed to go to the laboratory in the main Science faculty.
That's a bit of historic background. The college's were all men's colleges until Cambridge started admitting women across the board but the women's college stayed.

Sorry about the many misplaced apostrophe, my auto correct is in love with them

Being female is not an identity ffs, what would you be identifying with?

Isn't Girton also single sex?

It would have been more sensible for them to just say it will be a mixed college from now on. Unfortunately sense seems to have flown out of the window in a lot of our colleges...

Shouldn't be any single sex colleges/universities.

damnde I believe the term is 'identifying as' not 'with'. Newspeak.

No, Girton is not single sex. It was the first of the women's-only colleges to become coed.

"Shouldn't be any single sex colleges/universities."

That is an entirely different conversation. There are single-sex secondaries all over the country (in which, statistically, girls do better than in co-ed settings); do you want to close them all down too?

Back to the actual issue: What I object to (very strongly) is the idea that a man can self-identify as a woman (and vice versa).

The fact that they can then lay claim to single-sex-specific organisations/institutions/places/spaces is just the 'logical' conclusion to a thought process that seems to me to be mind-bogglingly ill-thought-out.

It would put me off applying, if I were 18 again, whip smart and wanted to go to a women's college.

May as well just apply for co-ed.

Back to the actual issue: What I object to (very strongly) is the idea that a man can self-identify as a woman (and vice versa). some of us object to female ghettos, women still being segregated as they were when they weren't really supposed to go to university.

IAmEatingACurry us folk with XY chromosomes aren't disadvantaged at university, well not undergrad anyway I don't know about post grad.

Men aren't allowed single sex colleges why should women. Welcome to equality.

You object to men self identifying as women? And vice versa? Isn't that a bit anti equality and diversity? Men have been identifying as women for centuries and vice versa. You can object to it, but it's a bit unfair to do so. And yes, there have been single sex schools around for a long time. It's perfectly fine to be happy with that and at the same time to find single sex universities a bit strange, particularly as the single sex male colleges became co-ed to welcome all, but the women only colleges haven't. It doesn't follow that you think women only colleges aren't fair so you automatically want to shut down single sex schools. I think the point is that there are both boys and girls schools, but only women's only colleges.

Women can have female spaces until men wearing dresses decide that they can't anymore. I wonder if men who "self identify" as women understand how horrific this is.

I imagine the argument is that transgender students at the age of 18/19 or so are unlikely to have been reassigned gender officially, too young for surgery, too.
However, this argument is fallacious because, as there are no wholly male colleges, they can attend any other college as transgender women without prejudice.
We are getting into controversial territory here but IMHO a male has not experienced the same difficulties as a female, even though he feels he ought to have been born female.
The character of female colleges, like all female workplaces, clubs etc is very different from mixed ones.

The elephant in the room no matter how much trendy speak goes on is that in society, it's not men who are afraid of being on dark streets late at night because of predatory females. Rape crisis centres are not full of male victims. Let's not pretend all is equal between the sexes in terms of which sex is more physically threatened by the other, generally speaking.

*male victims of female sexual offenders, I should clarify.

Oh for goodness sake. This is not about the inappropriateness of having women-only institutions in a so-called equal society. It's about any Tom, Dick (literally) or Harry deciding they are a women and wanting a woman-only space. It's all about validation.

dragon simultaneously off and on topic.

Why is anything created 'women only'?

To remove men from the situation or location, to provide a certain environment.

Why are men unwelcome in a deliberately created environment ?

Lots of reasons. But you'd have to be subject to a male dominated, skewed society to understand. And also mostly not be male.

The elephant in the room no matter how much trendy speak goes on is that in society, it's not men who are afraid of being on dark streets late at night because of predatory females

no, men are afraid of being on dark streets at night because of violence from other men

www.telegraph.co.uk/men/thinking-man/10752232/Our-attitude-to-violence-against-men-is-out-of-date.html

men are more often the victims of violence than women

Whoputthecatout.....you say it's about any time dick or Harry wanting to get in woman's only space....isn't that what women did to men, so the male only Colleges had to become mixed? Just don't think we can do that and then moan when men try and encroach on our space. And how about that male who identifies as a woman...it could be any one of us. He's probably identified as a woman for years....

I think the point is that there are both boys and girls schools, but only women's only colleges.
Indeed. The women's only college date back to the days when women couldn't be awarded degrees or use all of the University's facilities. They were necessary female spaces back in those days. They may well not be needed any more. But that most certainly is not 'the point'. It would be the point if the college was simply going co-ed, but it isn't. What it is doing is getting rid of the requirement to be a biological woman, and instead accepting those who merely self-identify as women. But it is still calling itself a 'women-only' college. In other words, it is trying to redefine what a woman actually is.

You object to men self identifying as women? And vice versa? Isn't that a bit anti equality and diversity?
It depends what you mean by equality and diversity. I support the right of a male-born person to wear a dress, high heels and makeup, adopt a female name, and use female pronouns if she wants. I also respect her right, provided she's an adult, to use hormones and surgery to make changes to her body. She should be able to go about her business without being verbally or physically attacked. She should never be denied housing, work, healthcare or any other rights on the basis of her gender presentation. But I don't support her right to access spaces that were specifically set aside for biological females, to counteract disadvantages that have been conferred on us on the basis of our sex - not our gender. Murray Edwards College used to be one of those spaces, but it could be argued that in modern times a women's university college isn't needed any more. But there are other women's spaces that most certainly still are needed. Prisons, rape crisis centres... virtual spaces like academic awards... women's sports... If we support self-identification, we support the notion that any male-born person can simply declare himself female and access all those spaces. Taking sport as just one example - imagine how much diversity there would be in the Olympic records in ten years' time, if that were allowed to happen. The women would all be gone.

cdtaylor - it's not a question of not being allowed: male colleges chose to admit women because Cambridge was male-dominated and it was a way of offering women the opportunities men already had. As women may still suffer some disadvantage being in male-dominated environments, the two undergrad women-only colleges have continued to provide a haven for women (for those who want it).

Ssd...sure the women in this women's only college go out in the streets at night....I really don't think that's a reason towards a women only college needing to exist.

Ssd - sexually predatory females then instead of predatory females (I would have thought that was obvious).