In 1982, St Mark’s College admitted women students for the first time.
In 2022, we celebrated the 40th anniversary of this landmark in a variety of ways, including with a special dinner held on Saturday 30 April, drinks hosted by the Old Collegians' Association later in the year, and online profiles of many remarkable St Mark’s women.
The 40th Anniversary Dinner was held at the College on Saturday 30 April.
The guest speaker was Dr Angela Evans AM, one of our first women students in 1982, who has gone on to an outstanding career with international impact in podiatry, and who served on the College Council and Board from 2006 to 2020.
The toast to the College was proposed by Professor Peter Edwards AM, who as Master of the College from 1978 to 1982 oversaw the introduction of coeducation at St Mark’s.
A report on this special celebration is available here.
At the Old Collegians’ Association drinks on 28 October 2022 to mark the 40th anniversary of coeducation, Professor Renuka Visvanathan (St Mark’s 1991-96) warmly recollected her years at St Mark’s in proposing the toast.
Old Collegians of all generations from the 1950s to the 2020s – including several of the first women to enter the College in 1982 – enjoyed her amusing tales of how an Indian woman from Malaysia was made so welcome in the St Mark’s of the early to mid 1990s.
Read Renuka Visvanathan’s speech here and her profile here.
The profiles of St Mark’s women are of many women who helped to build the College, student or staff or governance leaders, women who have contributed in community service, the law, medicine and health, arts and media, academia, sport, or other fields – or St Mark’s women to be proud of for other reasons.
Calls for nominations of women to profile appeared in College e-newsletters, and we are very grateful for the suggestions received.
Over the course of 2022, profiles appeared on this page and on College social media. The profiles were researched and written by current students Margot Pick and Oliver Douglas, in collaboration with the Head of College, Professor Don Markwell. Some further profiles are expected in 2023.
Simply click on the photo below to go to the profile.
To create opportunities for future women students who need financial help to come to St Mark’s, donations to the “Women of St Mark’s Scholarship” fund are warmly encouraged. Donations may be made through our Giving page.
We hope that you enjoy the profiles below as a glimpse of some of the many remarkable women who have contributed to St Mark’s College and the wider community – including, we hope, as an inspiration to future St Mark’s women.
