News that Oxford's last women-only college, St Hilda's, is once again agonising about whether to admit men may leave most of the nation cold.
Working mothers have more to worry about than donnish goings-on but it has been given significance by today's publication of the Women and Work Commission's report, Shaping a Fairer Future. The first nine recommendations all involve education.
The commission says stereotyping is at the root of the problem of pay inequality - girls follow their mother's generation into low paid jobs.
Apart from better career advice, the report says schools should look again at single sex teaching in certain cases and activities like computer clubs for girls.
Ironically, running a college - or indeed a school - has been one of the few jobs where women have been left in unquestioned charge for more than a century. St Hilda's, founded in 1893 by Dorothea Beale, principal of the Cheltenham Ladies' College, has provided role models ever since but is currently being deprived of funding by Oxford University in the name of gender equality - joint appointments between the university and the colleges must be open to applicants of both sexes so St Hilda's has to bear the whole cost.
Supporters of going mixed argue that Oxford is now thoroughly opened up to women - all the other colleges are co-ed, some are run by female principals. Miss Beale's job is done.
But is it? Opponents say it is symbolically important to have women running a college as role models. At a time when fewer than 9% of Oxford professors are women, they say the battle is far from over.
