Since the academic year 1870-1, women students in Cambridge had been permitted to sit the University's Previous Examination (Little-Go). This informal arrangement, which depended on the personal goodwill of University men, continued until 1881. In February 1881 a Grace was passed in Senate allowing women to take the Previous and Tripos examinations on the same terms as men. Their names were to appear on a separate class list and they were not admitted to degrees.This was the first real concession made to women by the University and the position thus gained remained unaltered for the next 40 years. Admission of women to University lectures and laboratories remained unofficial and subject to the permission of individual lecturers. The papers listed at GCPP Davies 13/1 comprise chiefly ED's correspondence concerning attempts to gain admission for women to Cambridge degrees at this time and related Girton College and Cambridge University memoranda.