Legislation

In 1972 on October 5, 6 and 8, Dickinson held a seminar on women in
coordination with the Bicentennial Homecoming the same weekend.  The
seminar was "designed to examine the political, educational, legal, and
social conditions in our society which sometimes tend to reduce women's
participation as full partners with men in many aspects of life."  It was the first seminar on women ever held at Dickinson
and included a play by the Mermaid Players, speeches, workshops and
exhibits.  C. Delores Tucker, Secretary of the Commonwealth of
Pennsylvania, was the major speaker. 

The Inter-Society Debate took place on March 9, 1922 between the Harman Society (a female society created in 1896) and the McIntyre Society (also for women, founded in 1921- It appears to have only been active in 1921) at Bosler Hall. It discussed the enactment of a constitutional amendment for the protection of women against political, legal or civil discrimination due to their sex. Margaret Eslinger (this document came from her personal scrapbook of her Dickinson years) assisted Kathryn Smith '24 on the negative side of the argument.

"Personal Adventures in Race Relations" by Esther Popel Shaw (class of1919), Dickinson's first African American female graduate, was published in 1946. It addresses the sources of prejudice and racism, and she urges in her introduction that cooperation is necessary to overcome these detrimental assumptions regarding African Americans. "At a time when all our energies are needed to meet and solve together the crucial problems of the postwar period, we find a large element of the population torn by resentment, suspicion and hatred.