Oxford University, the celebrated British institution, has picked its next leader - and for the first time in 785 years, it will be led by a woman. Louise Richardson, an expert on terrorism who currently leads St. Andrews University in Scotland, will be the first woman to serve as vice-chancellor. Richardson’s appointment is historic: Oxford picked its first vice-chancellor in 1230 and had nearly seven centuries of uninterrupted male control. Women couldn’t earn degrees there until 1920, the first woman became a full professor in 1948, and the university’s colleges didn’t go fully co-ed until 2008.
