More about women at Dickinson
Dickinson began admitting women in 1880, which was also the first year that Dickinson began admitting Indian School students. The first woman to attend Dickinson was Zatae Longsdorff. During Dickinson’s early co-ed years, female students would often face harassment from their male peers and college employees. One professor wouldn’t even let women into his classroom. Women who enrolled in his class were forced to sit outside the door while he lectured. Despite the hardships, the number of women students at Dickinson steadily increased. Women at Dickinson also started excelling in the classroom, taking most of the top grades and academic awards. This infuriated their male counterparts, who demanded that the college stop allowing so many women to attend Dickinson. Due to the pressure, in 1909 the board of trustees placed a limit on the female population at Dickinson, declaring that no more than 20% of a class could be women. At the turn of the century, when female students from the Indian School began attending Dickinson, there were four women’s fraternities, two female literary societies, a YWCA and a women’s senate. Unfortunately, these activities received very little attention on campus. There is no mention of any activities for women in the Microcosms or the Dickinsonians from the first decade of the twentieth century. Two women from the Indian School, Alice Denomie and Eva Foster, came to Dickinson to study during this century.
Sources:
History of Women at Dickinson Speech, Martha Slotter, November 2 and 3, 1984.
Dickinson Women Students Pamphlet
