In her paper titled "The Women's Liberation Movement: It's History and It's Effects Upon the Faculty of Dickinson College" Eve M. Draeger analyzes the impact of the feminist movement of the 1960s and 1970 upon Dickinson Faculty. For her paper Draeger interviewed a diverse group of Dickinson Professors.
In her senior oration "The Protestant Sisterhood," Olive Taylor discussed the centrality of women in religious communities throughout history. She argues that women's activity as reformers and missionaries within the church in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was unprecedented. For the first time, she asserted, protestant women were leaving the private sphere and working independently within the public sphere. However, Olive argued, women were still being the motherly figures they were born to be.
The August 1982 edition of the Alumni Magazine dicussed female Dickinsonian's roles within society. According to the author's study "Dickinson women prove to be non-traditional" and often have careers, stay single longer, and wait to have children. Thus the author contends, Dickinson alumnae's participation in the labor force is higher than the average American woman.
An article by Pam McFarland in the Dickinson Women’s Newsletter reveals that women are wanted by the law. The article reports a law school recruitment conference held in October at Syracuse University which was attended by 250 women. There, women had the opportunity to meet with recruiters from nine different law schools including Stanford, New England School of Law, and Dickinson, among others, while information about testing and admissions was covered. Panel discussions also took place at the conference; speakers included New York state Senator Carol Bellamy, Carol Libow, a partner at
In her memoir recounting her time at Dickinson, Elizabeth Low remembers President Reed advising female students not to pursue certain careers. According to Low, after reading her oration, President Reed, "using my manuscript as a foundation, he read and refuted, telling me some of the fundamental truths of life. I still thanked him. Today, the idea of a woman entering other profession than teaching would pass without comment."
On November 10th, 1972, junior and senior women of the College had an opportunity to expand their knowledge of career opportunities for women by sponsering a trip to Washington Opportunities for Women (W.O.W.). Originally focusing on the jobs for women of low economic status, the W.O.W. bureau, a branch of the Department of Labor, extended its function to include career counseling for women of all ages and backgrounds.
Ms. Pam McFarland was the organizer of the trip, and 40 female students attended.
Serving as Coordinator of Women's Programs, Pam McFarland was assigned a position as one of the two resident interns at Dickinson College. Working with several administrators during the day, McFarland also had an opportunity to attend graduate school at Shippensburg in the evenings. At Dickinson College her duties included arranging the schedule of speakers, workshops,as well as films for women on campus. Some of the events and ideas included:
-Showing and the discussing the movie "Growing Up Female," which traced the socialization of women.