She remained at Girton College as a Carlisle Scholar and subsequently as an Ottilie Hancock Research Fellow between 1930 and 1935, obtaining her PhD in 1933.
She spent a year at Oxford before returning to Girton College as Lecturer in English and Fellow in 1936.
She remained in Cambridge apart from a period working in London for the Board of Trade during the Second World War.
She held visiting professorships at numerous universities, including Santa Cruz, Tokyo, and Rhodes, South Africa, and received honorary degrees from many more.
During her period of office as Mistress, Girton College celebrated its centenary (for which she wrote a history, That Infidel Place [4]) and the decision was taken to admit men.