Mary Paley was a pioneer in the field of economics. She was the first woman to pass finals in political economy at the University of Cambridge (although barred from graduating due to her gender), and in 1875 she was invited to return to her former Cambridge college, Newnham, as the first female economics lecturer.
Mary arrived in Bristol in 1876 with her husband, the economist Alfred Marshall, after being forced to leave Cambridge because of regulations preventing college fellows from marrying. Marshall became the first principal of University College Bristol, and professor of political economy, while Mary became one of the first female lecturers. Although Bristol was the first higher education institution to admit women students on an equal basis to men, Mary’s salary was paid out of that of her husband.
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