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As part of Body Appreciation Week '07, Dickinson hosted Ophira Edut, author of Body Outlaws: Rewriting the Rules of Beauty and Body Image, as well as a national speaker, activist and entrepreneur, to
give a talk on positive self-image,
held in the Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium on February 7, 2007.

The Dickinson College Panhellenic Association celebrated 100 years at the College in 2007. All current sorority members on campus attended and the Mayor of Carlisle made a proclamation declaring March 5 as "Dickinson College Panhellenic Badge Day". The sororities on campus at this time were: Delta Nu, Kappa Alpha Theta, and Pi Beta Phi.

As the March 8, 2007 Dickinsonian reports, The Zatae Longsdorff
Center for Women decided to donate its many years of records and papers
to the college Archives in honor of Women's History Month, 2007.

John Hilton, in his article in the April 20, 2007 Carlisle Sentinel,
reports on a forum led by Senator Patricia Vance at Dickinson.  The
forum was hosted by the Zatae Longsdorff Center for Women and looked at
the issues facing women who run for political offices today.

In his April 26, 2007 column in The Dickinsonian, James Liska '09 talks about his experience of feminists' and women's rights activists attitudes towards men and advocates a shift from blaming to harnessing men's help.

Students staff the Zatae Longsdorff Center for Women table at an event in the Social Hall during the Spring semester of 2008.

Shannon Sullivan '09, in her column entitled 'Sass' in The Dickinsonian, relates how her attitude toward shaving and hygiene has changed since she started college and compares her habits to the habits of others on campus.

On the 35th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortions the Women's Center placed hangers hung with different phrases around campus to get student attention and make students more aware of the history of being able to choose and make decisions over one's own sexuality and the choice to bear children. This poster says "Don't Like Abortion? Get a Vasectomy!"

On January 30, 2008, the Executive Board of the Women's Center published an open letter to the Dickinson community in The Dickinsonian on its pro-choice stance and it's Roe v. Wade awareness campaign.

The Extra Features on the Dickinson College website documents the creation and activism of the Feminist Collective. Formerly the Zatae Longsdorff Center for Women, the Feminist Collective is the new student-led women's feminist organization on campus. The first women's center was created in 1984 as a support and research center, named after the first woman to graduate from Dickinson, Zatae Longsdorff.  With this new center, the members can "now focus on an inclusive agenda that addresses gender, race, class, and sexual orientation" because they are a feminist organization.

After seeing posters attached to coat hangers put up by the Women's Center in celebration of the 35th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, an anonymous student put up a reaction coat hanger with this poster. Some of the Womens Center celebration awareness posters included phrases like "Don't like abortion? Get a vascetomy!" and "Keep your theology off my biology."  The anonymous student wanted to make it known that abortion and other female issues are much more complicated than narrowing them down to religion/politics and other aspects of opinion.

In response to the posters put up by an anonymous student in protest of the Roe v. Wade anniversary posters of the Women's Center, Susannah Bartlow of the Women's Center created this lunch forum sponsered by the Women's Center, Office of Campus Life, Office of the Dean of Students, and Institutional and Diversity Initiatives.

A group of students who had conducted research in women's studies presented their papers on various subjects.  The schedule of events for the symposium included a dinner, a welcome by Professor of Anthropology and Chair of the Department of Women's and Gender Studies, Ann Hill, remarks by English professor and member of the President's Commission for Women, Victoria Sams, and two sessions of presentations.  The two sessions of research paper presentations were grouped, "Sexualities and Power" and "Status and Representation."  Student presentors included, Jennifer Chmielewski (Class of 2010)

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.

Dickinson Magazine reports the creation and opening of Hurrah for Coeducation!, an exhibit in Dickinson's Archives & Special Collections chronicling and celebrating the 125th anniversary of women studying at the college.  In the summer of 2009 interns Allyson Glazier, Cassidy Dermott, Alli Schell - all of the class of 2011 - teamed up under the guidance of special collections librarian Malinda Triller to compile artifacts of many types relating to the history of women at Dickinson.  The exhibit displayed photographs, letters, maps, and various other artifacts organized in cases

Dickinson Magazine features the story of Joyce Rinehart Anderson '45, "the first or second female designer in the American craft movement."  After studying language at Dickinson, Joyce moved back to her hometown of Morristown, New Jersey, and married high school sweetheart Edgar.  At their property on which they have lived, worked, and have preserved for sixty years, Joyce built furniture, decorations, and the house itself, cultivating special skill in lathing.  Today she is recognized as one of the "foremost American craft artists."

Spotlighted in Dickinson Magazine is Gretchen Dockter Hancock, a 1991 graduate who studied geology.  Her major combined with her research on climate change led her to an unexpected position for General Electric as project manager of its Corporate Environmental Programs at the company's Connecticut base.  Since her appointment in 2005, Hancock has seen a 750,000 metric ton reduction of carbon output at GE's facilities worldwide. 

Dickinson's first female graduate, Zatae Longsdorff, class of 1887, was commemorated by an alcove and plaque in Rector Science Complex.  The plaque was unveiled March 9th, 2010.

Dickinson Magazine reports the 2002 retirement of Lillian Buirkle, class of 1958, from Parke-Davis/Pfizer, where she held the post of senior scientist for 35 years.

Rev. Mary Douglas Glasspool '75 becomes the "first openly lesbian bishop to be elcted by the Episcopal Church."

The class of 1945's Katharine Knipe Shirk died July 12th, 2009.  She studied sociology at Dickinson.  Emma Cowell Slocum '37, an English major who taught music in public-school, died November 7th.  Five days later, Barbara Kahn '38 passed away.  Barbara worked in health services after studying biology at Dickinson.  From the class of 1940, Barbara Kirkpatrick Stroup died December 3rd. 
She taught for 30 years in Gettysburg at James Gettys Elementary
School.  On December 17th, Kristen Meyer of the class of 2000 passed

The 1941 Microcosm catalogues Josephine B. Meredith as the Dean of Women, the only female dean at Dickinson College. Meredith was also one of two female professors currently teaching on campus, the other being Mary Ganoe Rehfuss, the Director of Physical Education for Women. The Microcosm notes that Meredith, an Associate Professor of English, was known on campus for her "forceful personality and executive ability" which "shaped the Dickinson collegiate world".

Lambda Sigma Pi, a "honorary science fraternity" was a recent extra-ciricular activity for female students at Dickinson College in 1941, as they began admiting female members the year before. The fraternity focused on raising student interest in the sciences by sharing their own scientific work and discussing current scientific events at their bi-monthly meetings.  In 1941, Lambda Sigma Pi could boast of three female members: Ruth Leavitt, Jane Raring, and Janet Thornley out of the twelve-person fraternity.

 

Following up on the story from the previous week, The Dickinsonian discussed the continued controversy from the anonymous, anti-Greek publication "Stop the Violence" that accused Dickinson fraternities and sororities of crimes including hazing and even rape. 

The College Club and Peace Action co-sponsored an open forum in ATS to discuss the situation that was attended by over 400 members of the Dickinson community.  

This article is the first in a four-part series exploring the status of women at Dickinson College. The President's Commission on the Status of Women observed that even though women hold the majority on campus, they tend to act like they are in the minority. The article also noted that "Dickinson women often define themselves in terms of men - thinking of themselves as 'someone's girlfriend' or as a 'groupie to a particular fraternity.'" Some professors and students felt that sororities contributed to this atmosphere on campus and reinforce this in women.

This article is the last of a four-part series published by the President's Commission on the Status of Women at Dickinson College to examine certain elements of campus life that provide a negative atmosphere for women. The Commission focused on in this article two women's groups on campus, the Women's Resource Center and the Zatae Longsdorff Feminist Organization. The WRC tended to focus on relationships between male and female students.

This article is the third in a four-part series on the status of women at Dickinson College by the President's Commission on the Status of Women dealing with women's health on campus. The College, while it does not offer any gynecological services at the health center, offers a referral service to private gynecologists at Belvedere Medical Center that are not free of charge. What studies have found however are that more women go to the Tri-County Family Planning Center where the cost is cheaper and they are able to receive more useful information.