Biography
Dr Florence Smith is a historian of women in Modern Britain and Ireland. Her research interests include the history of women’s education and the history of the female elite. Florence attended Cheney School, a local state comprehensive, before completing her undergraduate degree at the University of Glasgow, and her Masters and DPhil at the University of Oxford. Florence received a full AHRC studentship to fund her Masters degree and a Clarendon Scholarship to fund her DPhil. She has previously taught Modern British History to undergraduates at the University of Oxford as a Lecturer at University College and Balliol College.
Florence is currently researching the educational and employment experiences of women who attended elite women’s colleges at the University of Oxford from 1974 to 2008. This involves extensive use of the St Hilda’s College Archives, as well as those of Oxford’s other former women’s colleges. Florence is working on a monograph examining the female elite in late-twentieth century Britain. The book considers whether, and if so how, experiences at women-only and historically male colleges at the University of Oxford, prepared women to enter and successfully navigate the elite professions in late twentieth century Britain. Florence’s article ‘Access and Inequality: A History of Girls’ Education in England’ was recently published as part of the launch of the Oxford Research Encyclopaedia of Gender and Women’s History.
Florence, Smith, ‘Access and Inequality: A History of Girls’ Education in England’, Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Gender and Women’s History, ed. Amanda Capern, Oxford University Press, April 9, 2026.
Positions
- Junior Research Fellow in History
Subjects
- History
