Dorothy Needham was a member of the Dining Group, an informal social club of Cambridge University women who did not hold a college fellowship and were thus isolated from the benefits of collegiate life. It supported the idea of a third women's college and co-operated in the formation of the Third Foundation Association but continued in existence after the establishment of New Hall in 1954. From 1953 it adopted as a formal title 'the Society of Women Members of the Regent House who are not Fellows of Colleges' and was instrumental in the creation of Lucy Cavendish College as a college for mature women students in 1965.
As with New Hall and the Third Foundation Association, these papers reflect Dorothy Needham's close involvement with the foundation of Lucy Cavendish College through the work of the Dining Group.