1960-1969

A female Dickinson graduate comments in the "Women as Leaders" survey about the academic caliber of the students at Dickinson. She had always felt that the women in her classes and the classes around hers, "were superior to the men in talent." However, the "men dominated the visible offices easily" and they outnumbered the women, such as in her graduating class there were 65-70 women out of 200 or more students. The college did attract a "high calibre of women" but she never had an overwhelmingly high regard for the "academic prowess of the men."

A female graduate from the class of 1962 reminisces about her time playing sports at Dickinson College in the "Women as Leaders" survey. While commenting upon her physical education experience, she remembered that she enjoyed playing on the Red and White basketball team. She enjoyed the several trips the team made each winter. Unfortunately, the team "never practiced or were coached as a unit" because women's sports were not taken very seriously.

From her time here at Dickinson, a female student of the class of 1961, recalls the restrictions women still faced on campus in the "Women as Leaders" survey. Women's social life was restrictive in that "Freshmen girls had to be in by 9:00 p.m. on weeknights, etc." The women's Freshmen dorms were also "terribly far away" from campus. Women's sports were also downplayed, which she experienced firsthand.

In one of the responses from the "Women as Leaders Survey" from 1979, a female graduate of the class of 1969 writes on her experiences with Greek Life at Dickinson. She mentions that social life at Dickinson could be restrictive in forming relationships with people because "people were stereotyped...in those years (frat vs.

According to an article in The Dickinsonian entitled "WIC Revises Dorm Rules for Freshmen," the Women's Interdormitory Council voted to extended freshmen women's curfew to 11:30pm Sunday through Thursday. Freshmen women, reports the article, had complained that it was difficult--nay, nearly impossible--to return from Mermaid Players rehearsal, see a late movie, or go to the snack bar if they needed to return to their dorms by 11pm.

In a letter to the editor for The Dickinsonian, David I. Thompson, M.D. discussed the availability of the Pill as the reason for greater "indulgence" in premarital intercourse but explained that most local physicians would not prescribe the Pill to unmarried women. Thompson claimed that "bastardy with its many ramifications of mother, father and grandparent agitation frequently gives the child a hard start in life and a hard start in emotional aspects...." He also reported a serious problem with venereal disease.

Many of the Letters to the Editor in an issue of The Dickinsonian addressed the censorship that the president of the college practiced by preventing publication of the newspaper in response to the cartoon on "The New Morality." Susan Jagielio complained of the outright censorship the president had practiced, and John Exdell called the action the "height of bureaucratic callousness."

A one-page article advertising the upcoming Public Affairs Symposium in The Dickinsonian featured brief glimpses at the views of the symposium's speakers on "New Morality" and included a cartoon that was intended to capture some of the issues under discussion. In the cartoon, a man approaches a woman, saying, "Look baby, you are living during the modern Sex-u-al Revolution. This is the New Morality! So take of fyoru dress and smile, sweetheart, you're in the Pepsi generation!" The woman counters the man, explaining that women have needs as well.

The 1966 Public Affairs Symposium, writes Barry Rascover in an article in The Dickinsonian, would investigate the "rapidly changing value system of today's generation" from February 6-9. Rascover emphasized Betty Friedan and Evelyn Duvall's dialogue on "Feminine Fulfillment in a Changing Morality" as the highlight of the symposium. While Friedan wrote The Feminine Mystique in order to critique the myth of marital bliss, Dr. Duvall defended premarital chastity and consulted to social and religious agencies.

The Dickinsonian reported that the upcoming symposium would address the topic of "The New Morality" and would feature Betty Friedan, author of The Feminine Mystique, among other speakers. The symposium was designed "to allow the student to come to grips with himself...."Betty Friedan would partner with Dr. Evelyn Duvall in order to discuss "Feminine Fulfillment in a Changing Morality." The article calls Friedan's book a "controversial bestseller."