Queens’ College is set to celebrate 30 years of admitting women in the College with a special dinner taking place tonight.

The dinner, which is being organized by College JCR Women’s Officer, Lucy Jefferson, aims to honour and recognize women’s contributions to College life. Attending the event are the College President and his wife, members of the Junior and Senior Combination Rooms, and College staff, including the College Nurse and administrative staff.

Speakers at the dinner will include Eileen Munro, an Advisor to the Department of Education, and Lucy Caldwell, an award-winning novelist and playwright and a Queens’ graduate.

According to Jefferson, “Everyone at Queens’ is eager to celebrate the presence and achievements of women at Queen’s College over the last thirty years.”

She added, “This dinner is the first of many events being held throughout the year to mark this important anniversary, and I hope that each one is as successful as this promises to be.”

The dinner, which has been in the works since the summer, will be held in the shadow of recent revelations that the current year’s fresher intake at Queens’ had consisted of a striking gender imbalance, with 107 men and only 50 women.

Charlotte Benton, President of Queens’ College Feminist Society, commented, “The event itself as a celebration of the landmark of 30 years of women matriculating at Queens’ does make an ironic and sad juxtaposition to the gender imbalance of the first year, but there as active help from the Fellows of the College when the JCR were organizing the dinner.

“Indeed, Fellows will be attending the event, and the College by all reports seem to have engaged openly with the JCR about the gender imbalance issue. Though what we’ve not heard is whether they intend to change anything about it for the next round of admissions, which is disappointing.”

Speaking to Varsity earlier this month, Andrew Thompson, Admissions Tutors for the College, said, “There will always be a variance year on year in the profile of the students admitted to any particular college. Like all Cambridge colleges, Queens’ admits the best students, regardless of considerations of race, gender or social background,”

Queens’ College was founded in 1448 by Margaret of Anjou. The College began admitting women in 1980. Among its famous female graduates are journalist and novelist Lindsay Ashford and actress Hannah Murray.