Click here
Full Steam Ahead, my latest novel, officially released this week. Hooray! It’s always an exciting and nerve-wracking time when a new book comes out. Exciting – because I love hearing from readers who have been looking forward to the book and finally have it in the hands. Nerve-wracking – because . . . well . . . will they like it?
So what does that have to do with women succeeding in a man’s world? As it turns out, my heroine, Nicole Renard, is an exceptionally intelligent woman. While back east at school, her teachers recognized her keen mind for mathematics and managed to get a copy of the test the young men over at Harvard took the previous year and administered it to Nicole. Her score would have placed her in the top 25% of the Harvard gentlemen, had she been allowed to sit for the official exam.
When Nicole answers Darius Thornton’s advertisement for a secretary, Darius assumes she’d be good for nothing more than penning pretty letters and answering social correspondence. A complete waste of his time. He needs a man with a grasp of mathematics and mechanical engineering, someone who can decipher schematics and logically deduce answers to scientific quandaries. Nicole dares him to test her, and she exceeds all of his expectations. Too desperate for competent help to care what gender that help might personify, he hires her, and our adventure begins.
As it happens, a few days ago, I was researching something for my current manuscript, and I stumbled upon a story that immediately caught my attention due to its similarity to the fictional scenario I had concocted in my imagination for Nicole. In 1890, a true heroine did the impossible. Philippa Fawcett received the top score in the Cambridge University mathematics tripos exam – the most prestigious mathematics exam in the world.
Philippa Fawcett
Women at this time were not allowed to study at universities nor to obtain degrees. All they could do was continue their education at women’s colleges and hope to perhaps teach at such a woman’s school one day. Not only were women considered weaker vessels, but Victorian physicians warned that women who strove to achieve academic honors put themselves at risk for madness or infertility. A woman’s brain just couldn’t stand up to the same level of strain as a man’s.
In the 1870’s, there were two women’s college associated with Cambridge – Newnham and Girton. Philippa attended Newnham. Eventually, female students were allowed to take the same exams as males, yet their results were tallied apart from the men’s and revealed at a separate ceremony. While a few women, such as Agnata Ramsay, achieved remarkable success on classical exams, the mathematics exams remained dominated by men.
Candidates for the tripos exams typically sat for 5 1/2 hours a day for eight days, then those who scored well enough to compete for the title of Wrangler, continued on for three more days. Can you imagine?
In June 1890, Philippa Fawcett’s score was revealed. She had scored 13% more points than the leading male candidate.
Newnham College
However, since she was ineligible for the title of Senior Wrangler, when her score was announced, it was announced as being “above the Senior Wrangler.”
No single achievement in academia’s history did more to prove the equality of women to men. Perhaps it is no surprise to learn that Philippa’s mother, Millicent, was huge proponent of the women’s suffrage movement in England. Thankfully, Philippa lived long enough to see that the seed she planted as a young woman had finally borne fruit. One month before her death at the age of 80, Cambridge University finally approved to allow women to earn degrees alongside men. The year was 1948.
To read more about Philippa Fawcett and her remarkable accomplishment, there is a fabulous article on the Smithsonian website. You can access it here.
- Who is a woman you admire for making a name for herself in a man’s world?
Latest posts by Karen Witemeyer (see all)
- Karen’s Favorites - May 4, 2025
- Spring Reading Bouquet - May 1, 2025
- April in Texas = Bluebonnets - April 17, 2025
Read it. Loved it. Might be my fav of yours yet 🙂 Thank you for blessing us!!!
Thanks, Meghan! So glad you enjoyed it. 🙂
The first woman that comes to my mind is Louisa May Alcott! Especially since women writers weren’t that popular in that time.
Excellent choice, Rachel! I love Little Women and the autobiographical nature of Louisa’s story. Every time I think of the movie, I picture those ink-stained fingers and remember how passionate she was about her dream and how she fought so hard to make it come true.
Reading about that test, really brought back some memories of the bar exam for me. I sat for the Ohio Bar in July, 2000. Although, not quite as long as the math test mentioned in your article, it was 2 1/2 days long, 6 hours each day and 3 hours on the last day. It was exciting and terrifying all at the same time, a bit like you describe book release day. Will I know the answers? Will I be able to answer in the questions in the time allowed? Will I pass?
Being somewhat a math geek, I absolutely love this article about a Victorian math geek. Thank you.
Any word on when Full Steam Ahead will be available on audio?
That Bar exam sounds grueling. Wow. I didn’t know those lengthy exams still existed. I’m glad you could relate to Philippa’s story. My kids are all math geeks as were my husband and I back in the day – skills long rusted, in my case. But I still love a good math story, especially with an impressive heroine. Philippa certainly fit the bill!
I just checked the Audible site, and it looks like they released Full Steam Ahead yesterday. WooHoo! In the past it has taken them a couple months to get them out for me. So hop on over and give it a try!
http://www.audible.com/pd/Romance/Full-Steam-Ahead-Audiobook/B00KQPJCXK/ref=a_search_c4_1_2_srTtl?qid=1401978027&sr=1-2
Oh good. I have been saving May’s credit for this book. I will have to get. It will be next book. Thanks for the information.
Can’t wait to read FULL STEAM AHEAD, Karen! Thanks for sharing this fascinating information today – – and thankfully those brilliant women of the past paved the way for future female scholars. 🙂
I also think of Louisa May Alcott – – but I know there are many more. That would be a fun topic to research! 😉
Hugs, Patti Jo
This post makes me so proud of Philippa. What an extraordinary woman and an extraordinary accomplishment! When I was young, I remember being proud of Margaret Thatcher for rising to the role of Prime Minister of Great Britain. And in high school I wrote an essay applauding Sandra Day O’Connor as the first woman to sit on the Supreme Court. Woman power!
Woman power indeed! Thrilled when we prove we are well capable as women of excelling in diverse fields of knowledge. I’ve always thought my mother to be an exceptionally strong and hardworking woman. Proverbs 31 describes her flawlessly. Other women that inspire me are Joyce Meyer and Beth Moore.
Remarkable! Thanks for sharing, Karen! (And I just finished Full Steam Ahead! Review coming soon!) 🙂