“The bluestocking is the most odious character in society…she sinks wherever she was placed, like the yolk of an egg, to the bottom, and carries the filth with her.”

That’s the thoughts of 18th century English writer, William Hazlitt, on the Blue Stockings Society of England. These upper-class British women – or “blue stockings” as they were derisively referred to at the time – formed this circle because men wouldn’t let them into university. These women adopted the moniker of blue stocking as their own, and formed a group. There they debated literature, and fought for women’s education.

It’s this fight that the National Tertiary Education Union is continuing with its Bluestocking Week 2016. And while things have certainly changed since the 1700s, a glaring gender gap still persists in higher education, argues Jeannie Rea, NTEU national president.