Coeducation (arguments for)

Dickinson Magazine chronicles the birth of coeducation at the college.  In 1877 a committee considered "the advisability of admitting ladies," and the next year faculty voted almost unanimously that women should attend Dickinson - a single professor, Henry Harman, opposed the idea.  He was still opposed in 1883, when a faculty vote nonetheless approved admission of women to the college.  Although Harman may never have warmed to the idea of women at Dickinson, he did agree in 1896 to have his name ironically attached to a newly-formed women's literary society.

In her 1909 essay "The Education of Woman in America", S. Margaret Gruber traced the history of women's education and argued that women's higher education was essential. She began her essay by discussing the history of women's education from "household drudgery" to women's higher education. She argued that women's higher education did not impare women's health but made them more vigorous. Moreover, she asserted that women who attended institutions of higher education did still marry and bear children.

In his senior oration "Co-education in American Colleges," Frank Moore (class of 1891) argued in favor of co-education in America. He first contended that women's college's were not up to par with their male counterparts. Instead of improving the women's institutions, he believed that Americans should send women to coeducational institutions.  This would allow for the further improvement of formerly male institutions.  Secondly, Moore asserted that coeducation would better prepare women for living in a man's world.

In her speech delivered during a 1937 Commencementt Week Dinner, Zatae Longsdorff Straw remembers her time at Dickinson College. In the beginning of the speech, Straw admits that this was her first time back to Dickinson since she graduated in 1887. Thus, her mind flooded with memories of Dickinson during her 1937 visit. As the first female graduate, Straw described the harassment she received from her male counterparts. She described many of the faculty including Dr. Rittenhouse whose "eyes filled with tears" when male students treated her unkindly. Dr.