After a year of its creation, the Phi Alpha Pi Sorority is still going strong. The Sorority still consists of 10 members. The picture in the Microcosm of these women significantly shows them all wearing very masculine bows and white blouses.
The Omega Psi Sorority was created in 1899 and included 7 female members. This local sorority lasted until 1907, when it was adopted into the Chi Omega organization.
The Microcosm’s 1932 issue documents women’s athletics as “intramural only.â€Â In years past, women’s sports had been “intercollegiate competition between varsity teams,†yet it is noted that this particular system was changed to intramural several years prior to the ‘32 edition of the yearbook. The sports were “organized along a recreational plan,†where women were “enabled†to chose one of the six athletic options to participate in. Options included archery, basketball, clogging, riding, swimming, and hockey.Â
The 1899 Microcosm included a poem dedicated to "our co-eds." This poem pokes fun at how the female students have changed the atmosphere at Dickinson, as well as the male students themselves. The poet remarked that the female students came to Dickinson "like the star of Hope...to our legal prison, with their bright and winsome ways." The poem goes on to further praise the co-eds, saying to "let us toast them, swearing ever that, till life for each one ends...shall you want warm-hearted friends."
By 1899, the Harman Literary Society for women had doubled in size. In 1898 there were only 9 women who were apart of the society. By 1899 though, the organization now had 18 women involved.
Women's participation in the female chorus or Glee Club doubled between the years of 1930 and 1931. The Microcosm documents a female chorus with only ten members in 1930. The following year, however, women seemed to show a desire to branch out and express their musicality; the number of female singers in the group climbed to twenty-four.
The 1899 Microcosm showed the first mention of the Phi Alpha Pi Fraternity of female students. Phi Alpha Pi was a local fraternity created in 1898 and consisted of 10 female students. This chapter at Dickinson lasted briefly because it then "died a natural death from want of support." Until 1903, the Phi Alpha Pi remained a local organization when Pi Beta Phi, a national sorority, then absorbed it.
"The Dickinson Dorcas Society" was featured in the 1898 Microcosm that made fun of some of the female students. It included 14 female "members" along with an interpretation of their names, what they are famous for, what committees they are apart of and what their "good work" was. Each category is a satire on the individual, poking fun at their traits, both positives and negatives.
The 1930 edition of Dickinson's Microcosm yearbook features an eight page spread of women's portraits under the heading of "Campus Belles". A committee of "three well known artists†judged and selected eight women as “most worthy of being placed under the caption of Campus Bellesâ€. Their selection relied "on the basis of a number of aesthetic attributes." Women featured include, Florence Burt Shaw, Dorothy Virginia Loveland, Lenore Ann Cisney, Kathryn Louise Ammon, M. Jane Dando, Annabel G. Rice, Mary Sophia Everett, and Eleanore May James.
The 1898 Microcosm included a brief history of the women's Harman Literary Society, as well as a list of its active members. Since its creation in October of 1896, the Harman Literary Society showed activity and creativity on campus. Along with the Belles Lettres and the Union Philosophical Societies, the Harman Literary Society participated with them to put on a program in celebration of Washington's birthday.