Sorority Rituals - Reflections On Rites of ... - Mari Ann Callais

The member groups of the National Panhellenic Conference will continue to add value to
the university experience, compliment the mission of the academic community, graduate
alumnae who work to improve their communities, welcome new members, advance ideas
for service to the college and community at large, and make other substantial
contributions to our society which meet the needs of the twenty first century (p. 12).
Many colleges continue to see the benefits of the sorority experience for their undergraduate
women and have begun movements to evaluate Greek life as well as to develop new initiatives in
an attempt to sustain Greek letter organizations.
Women's "secret societies," today referred to as sororities, have been in existence since
1851 (Owen, 1991). Sororities were founded to address the need of young women to develop
friendships with other young college women. At the time these groups were founded, women
either attended all women's colleges, or normal schools as they were called, which primarily
prepared them to be teachers or nurses, or they attended primarily men's colleges or universities
where they were definitely the minority. In the book In the Company of Educated Women,
Barbara M. Solomon (1985) describes the growth of sororities:
The growth of sororities over the period illustrates well the mixed purposes and results of
organized social groups. Sororities were originally founded as secret societies to affirm
the ties of friendship. Gradually, however, they took over public functions, and, to
varying extents, became influential forces on many campuses…In addition, especially at
coeducation schools, they provided institutional group support for young women (p.107).
Female students’ need to bond with other women of common beliefs was very important to them.
As such, ritual became a way for sororities to keep their vision consistent and to pass their beliefs
on to future generations.
It is important to note that most of the literature presents views on both sororities and
fraternities when discussing various topics. However, in this research, I focused solely on
sororities because of the differences within the structure of organizations and to specifically
3