Willa Muir

Willa Muir

Willa Muir was particularly vocal in the emancipation and inclusion of women in University life. As a member of the Women Student’s Debating Society, she regularly expressed her progressive views on women’s role in society. She rose through the ranks of the society, becoming president in the 1910-1911 session. One of the motions carried in her year as chair was “a University training is desirable for women who are not going to take up a profession”. Muir contributed significantly to student life in St Andrews. She wrote poems that were printed in the University newspaper, The College Echoes. The College Echoes acted “as a powerful organism of influence which both reflected and formed the opinions and the attitudes of the student body”. Later in her career, she held teaching jobs and lecturer positions in Classics. In conjunction with her husband, she wrote and translated extensively. She jointly translated the works of Franz Kafka into English and wrote her own novels about the lives of women at the time. These works are noted for being particularly progressive in their views as they challenged the traditional notions of domestic and societal roles.

womensta,womenofstandrews

1890

apbh

Organisation

269

Willa Anderson

TEXT

Willa was particularly vocal in the emancipation and inclusion of women in university life. As a member of the Women Student’s Debating Society, she regularly expressed her progressive views on women’s role in society. She rose through the ranks of the society to become president in 1910-1911 session. One of the motions that were carried in her year as chair was ‘that a University training is desirable for women who are not going to take up a profession’. Willa contributed significantly to student life in St Andrews. She contributed poems to the university newspaper, the College Echoes. The College Echoes “as a powerful organism of influence which both reflected and formed the opinions and the attitudes of the student body”. Later in her career, she held teaching jobs and lecturer in Classics. In conjunction with her husband, she also wrote and translated extensively. She jointly translated the works of Franz Kafka into English and wrote her own novels about the lives of women at the time. These works are noted for being particularly progressive in their views as they challenged the traditional notions of domestic and societal roles.

1970

She published some of her works under a pseudonym (Agnes Neill Scott) in order to break her association with her husband with who she published jointly