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

was more than 200 years after Harvard College was founded for the education of young men
(Chamberlin, 1991). Chamberlin (1991) writes that opportunities for women in higher education
were limited until after the Civil War. As Strout (1956) explains:
Prior to the Civil War, few colleges were open to women in any part of the country, and
higher education to them meant attendance at a young ladies' seminary or finishing school
where the curriculum consisted largely of English literature, composition, drama, French,
art and music. But all of that changed after the war. Many state controlled and financed
colleges and universities were established and they were not closed to women students.
Privately endowed colleges also began to see the light, and women were accepted on the
campus very grudgingly but they were there to stay (p. 10).
Due to declining enrollments following the Civil War, several other state universities
extended the opportunity for women. Institutions that were founded for educating women
included Vassar College in 1865, followed by Wellesley in 1875 and Bryn Mawr and Mount
Holyoke in the 1880s (Solomon, 1985; Strout, 1956). All of these institutions were created for
women and provided new opportunities for women and changed the face of higher education in
the United States. The increase of women in higher learning institutions led to a corresponding
growth in the need for environments that would assist women in their development.
Fourteen years after women began attending colleges in 1837, the development of
sororities, which were known at that time as secret societies, began. The development of
sororities throughout the end of the 1800s and the early 1900s allowed women to come together
to share common experiences and "to provide an alternative to the rigors of the classroom" (Hunt
& Rentz, 1994 p. 289). As women's enrollment increased in colleges and universities, so did the
number of sorority chapters and national organizations. Solomon (1985) presents the following
on the development of sororities on college campuses:
The growth of sororities over the period illustrates well the mixed purposed and results of
organized social groups. Sororities (sometimes known as fraternities or by a particular
club name) were originally founded as secret societies to affirm the ties of friendship.
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