In this article I examine some of the issues I observed in my sorority and what led me to eventually drop. I dropped because I became a feminist, and I was embarrassed to be a part of a system that perpetuated patriarchal ideas of femininity and operated on rules and ideas about gender that are close to over one hundred years ago. Sororities differ on every campus and some are more progressive than others. I am not asking anyone to question their membership. I am not giving anyone a reason to bash sorority women (those badass females are my friends and I will come find you). The purpose of this article is to urge members to reflect on their organizations and the future of women as well as begin to push their Greek organizations to evolve with the times.
Here are four areas where I believe the Greek/Sorority system needs to improve:
1. Sororities need to increase their support and involvement in the Women's Rights Movements today.
I will always remember the day I decided to drop my sorority. I had played around with the idea for a couple of months, but it was one day while I was abroad in the Czech Republic that I decided once and for all. My roommate had just posted a picture, of just her nipple, as a contribution to the Free the Nipple Movement. A movement meant to challenge the sexual binary between men and women, the objectification of the female body, and the nudity regulations as established by Instagram. Looking at the photo you would never distinguish if it were a male or a female nipple.
She ended up taking it down not because Instagram made her, but because her Greek organization did. When I thought about my own chapter and how they would react, I knew they would have reacted in the exact same way. All Greek organizations have regulations in place about what members can and can’t have posted on their social media, so that members can represent their organization in an appropriate manner. I understand this completely. But when it comes to the rights and equality of women being represented in the media, I want to be part of an organization that comes to my side. I think sororities should be the first to sign up alongside women’s movements and the first to donate for the cause. That’s what our founders would want; that is why our founders founded these organizations years and years ago. To provide women a place they could express themselves, have voices in a community, and find their female empowerment in a male-dominated society. They did this secretly I may add. These women were courageous and took risks. They also played a huge part in the Women’s movements in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
We have become stuck in their ideas of women, which were progressive in the time, but belittling in the now. We have lost the zeal of our founders. We have forgotten their original intentions. I challenge you as members to rekindle this zeal, join the common day fight, and bring sororities back to what they were originally intended to be.
2. Fraternities and Sororities need to be held to equal standards by their organizations.
All Greek facilities operate on the same rules and regulations as specified by any campus’ Panhellenic council but vary widely when it comes to national regulations. It seems that fraternities still have the upper hand. Why do fraternities on campus get to produce sexy calendars, when you know if the roles were reversed it would never be allowed? Why do fraternities get to go away for the weekend at formal and not sororities? Are we not trustworthy? Can we not survive in the mountains by ourselves for a weekend? What gets me the most is, why do fraternities have in place a system of sober ride? What national standard set by our Greek organizations is acknowledging that men go out and drink and might need a safe ride home but that women cannot set up the same system?
On such a simple level, we are not provided the same opportunities or encouragement to go behave as the men do. I say yes! Girls go out and have fun. It’s not the 1900s when our chapters were first founded. Women can go out to the bars or to parties and not get shamed the next day for dabbling in the same poison that, “makes our husbands scoundrels.” First, organizations should not turn a blind eye to the reality of college behavior, and second they should not prohibit members from creating a sober ride on the basis that it’s “hazing” or encouraging drinking.
Saving a sister from a DUI or a walk alone in the dark is saving a life and the most sisterly thing you could do as female empowering organization. As an active member, I encourage you look at your female organization and the male organizations on campus and examine where national rules and regulations vary and begin to ask why.
3. Greek organizations need to acknowledge and support gender as it evolves.
Last year I was the Recruitment Chair for my sorority. I got into an interesting discussion with a member on the Panhellenic recruitment board. He told me about his fraternity and how they had had brothers who were transgender and had even supported one brother as he had transitioned from male to female. He said things got fuzzy as it came to campus wide Recruitment. Anyone is allowed to sign up for recruitment, but it’s up to every chapter’s discretion and ultimately their national organization to decide who they let in.
Gender and identity movements are on the rise, specifically the rights and acknowledgement of those who identify as transgender. Some organizations have let transgendered people join and some have not. It all comes down the organization and what they believe is the definition of a “woman” and who would make a worthy member. If Greek organizations do not open their doors to transgender women, then their organization is directly contributing to discrimination and taking away the rights that transgender women have earned in this country. All sororities should review their bylaws and make sure they are all encompassing of our gender as a whole, making sure all women would have a place. The next step would be to contact your nationals and check in with where they stand on the topic of transgender members. It is not until your national standards change that Panhellenic can open up Recruitment to a wider and more diverse group of potential new members. What is Recruitment, if it is not to widen your chapter’s diversity and find members that would add to the power and perspective of your chapter? I urge you to ask your organization where they stand, talk to fellow members about the demographics you are allowing into your chapter, and open your organization and membership experience to new communities of women.
4. Sororities need to redevelop the leadership roles and power given to their collegiate members.
I served on my chapter’s executive board for a year. What I found, as I know many other members of executive boards have found, is that you are the puppet in the hands of your Greek organization. I have friends across the country in various chapters. One friend at Colorado University told me how her organization overstepped the Recruitment Chair's decision and changed the outfits the members were supposed to wear on recruitment day. I had a situation while in recruitment, where I made decision about recruitment one day and the next day I received a phone call from my Regional counterpart telling me I could not do it. Now I am sure she had the chapter’s best intentions in mind (as did I). But how are we teaching women what leadership is, if we don’t even have the chance to actually “lead” our own chapters?
Some people may read this and argue that this is just the nature of organizations, but I strongly feel otherwise. When I imagine an organization that empowers women, I imagine an executive board where members are given the chance to grow as individuals, to learn about leadership and to hopefully graduate college with the skills and confidence to enter the world. Not a place where we learn to answer to and submissively follow the power above us. Women have been doing that for a lifetime; we do not need to reinforce women being submissive in a male-dominated world, especially in an organization that was originally created to challenge the patriarchy. I challenge members to sometimes question the national or regional decisions. To listen to their hearts and express what is right. Take revenue as a member and have confidence that your voice matters in this organization. You are not at the hands of the organization; they are here to enrich your collegiate experience and meet the needs of their members who are smart and educated females! Stand up to and question your organization sometimes, not because you dislike them, but because you want this organization that means so much to you to continue playing a huge role in the collegiate careers of women and perpetuating the power and capability of women everywhere.
