A woman will lead Oxford University for the first time in its 785-year history

Oxford University, the storied 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. (That's the equivalent of an American university president.)

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 coed until 2008.

The most prestigious colleges in the US are doing slightly better: half of the colleges in the Ivy League are now led by women. Overall, though, women hold only about 25 percent of American college presidencies.

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