Running Head: SORORITY GIRLS

Sorority Girls: The True, The False, and the

Stereotypes
Kennedy Guess
University of Kentucky

Sorority Life

Abstract
People on college campuses have plenty of stereotypes about sororities. People on average have
false beliefs about what it really entails to be apart of a group. A majority of students are not in a
sorority. Girls in a sorority on average have higher grades than those who are not in a sorority.
There are two councils for sororities on the University of Kentuckys campus. One council is
predominately African American, and the other is predominately Caucasian. The stereotypes
they have about each other contradict how they want people to view them. Although, historically
they are opposites but they have a lot more in common than most people think.

Keywords: Sorority, stereotypes, contradict

Sorority Life
Sisterhood
Sisterhood is defined as an association, society, or community of women linked by a

common interest, religion or trade. The first week before school starts there are about 1,000 girls
on the University of Kentuckys campus waiting to establish a sisterhood. This is known as
Rush week. Lauren Schlabach described it by saying the following:

So we move in a week, or two weeks before everyone else, and then you have an open
house day where you go to every single house and each day as the week goes on you are
cut from the houses and your house list gets smaller. Then you go the ones you are asked
back to. Then on the final day you go to your top 3 houses, and that is called pref day and
after that you may or may not get a bid from one. (L. Schlabach, personal
communication, September 28, 2014).

After this whole Rushing process the girls are selected by a sorority and establish a
sisterhood. Not many people who do not participate in rush week understand these concepts.
There are many opinions on this week. One student on campus called it modern day slavery.
She said it was due to the fact that the girls are bid on. The girls are told to dress up, and
basically present themselves the best they can so the house will invite them back. Some see it as
an opportunity for the girls to simply get to know the girls at the head of the sorority. Girls could
go through the whole rush process and end up without a bid from any sorority. For those girls
who were lucky enough to be picked by a group their life long sisterhood is established.
History Behind Sororities

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Sororities were not referred to as sororities initially. They were simply fraternities for
women. The first fraternity for women was founded in 1851 at the Adelphean Society; it was
called Alpha Delta Pi. The first actual sorority was chartered in 1882 and it was called Gamma
Phi Beta. Initially the whole make up of the sorority differed from a college. The first sorority to
exclusively belong to a college was Kappa Alpha and it was chartered at Union College in
Schenectady, New York. They were called Greeks on campus because the idea and many rituals
came from ancient Greece. ("Social Fraternities and Sororities - History, Characteristics of
Fraternities and Sororities, Reforms and Renewal - College, Fraternity, Greek, and Campuses StateUniversity.com,") The sorority house started in the 1890s when the organizations started
purchasing houses. In order to keep the houses when members moved out people started using
recruiting methods to include more girls into the sorority. This is where hazing began. They
made the new members complete household chores and other random tasks. As the need for
college attendance grew so did the number of sorority members.

Since then it is estimated that 10% of all college students are in a Greek organization.
(University of Kentucky (UK) - Stats, Info and Facts | Cappex. (n.d.). Retrieved from
https://www.cappex.com/colleges/University-of-Kentucky). The popularity grew and today it is
generational. Girls in college come from a long line of women such as their grandmothers,
mothers, aunts, sisters and other family members who were a member of a sorority. Sororities
became a tradition. But as time moved on they began to cause issues.
College deans had issues with the excessive amount of hazing and drinking that was
taking place in Greek organizations. So in the early 1990s fraternity and sorority reform began.
Sororities and Fraternities were ordered to stop hazing and the use of alcohol varied from

Sorority Life
campus to campus. Although hazing is a big problem in the sorority culture, it is no longer a
major issue on the campus of the university of Kentucky. In some colleges hazing has even

resulted in death. This has been happening since the beginning. The first death of a female due to
sorority hazing was reported in 1894. (Retrieved October 21, 2014 from Wikipedia, Wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_hazing_deaths_in_the_United_States#1800s). Most recently
two girls who were pledges of the historically black sorority Delta Sigma Theta were killed in a
car accident. The driver was a fellow pledge ad suffered from sleep deprivation, exhaustion.
Overwhelming fatigue and other conditions. She fell asleep at the wheel, and blames the hazing
from her organization for the accident.

Minorities

In the year 2014 the largest group of girls participated in Rush in the history of the
University of Kentucky. But what percentage of the girls are minorities? A huge stereotype of
the PanHellenic council is they are Silver spoon fed Rich White girls But how much of this
is true?

Dakota Wicks is a sophomore at the University of Kentucky. She is Asian in a

predominately white sorority. Her experience was extremely different than the average person
who participated in rush was. Dakota said:
Well Im Asian right? SO like people would give me the Asian people in their houses, I
dont know if they think we would have more in common or something but Im adopted,
Im American, my parents are white so I wasnt really sure what they were trying to
accomplish out of that, I dont know I really hated it though. The houses that did it, I

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didnt like them as much as the other houses. (D. Wicks, personal communication,
September 28, 2014).

Is there a truth to the stereotype? Dakota felt as if she was picked out of the crowd because of
how she looked. Dakota also said she believed she was picked by many of the houses simply to
improve their numbers of minorities. She specifically chose her house because she felt like she
was just a person, not just that Asian girl. Dakota believes certain sororities live up to the
stereotypes of Rich, prejudice, white girls but certain sororities are not like that. Lauren
believes that sororities are open and welcoming to everybody. Lauren said:
I dont think its true at all, I think with every organization and with every group there are
going to be specific people in that group that fit the stereotype. But on a whole I have a
bunch of best friends all in different sororities like, my best friend shes an AKA like
things like that I think kind of disproves the stereotype. (L. Schlabach, personal
communication, September 28, 2014).

There are two PanHellenic councils on the campus of the University of Kentucky. The other
council is the National PanHellenic council.

The national PanHellenic council is historically black organization that was established
when racism was extremely prevalent in America. There are 9 sororities and fraternities. What
are the stereotypes that come with the divine nine? A lot of people on campus do not even
know they exist. What do the members of the PanHellenic council know about the National
PanHellenic council? Not very much. The PanHellenic council is pretty much very separate from

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them. The same stereotypes they do not like about themselves they feel about the National
PanHellenic council.
People around campus think they take their sisterhood too seriously, that they brand
themselves. The most common belief they have is that they pledge each other with brutality and
haze each other. When in reality like the PanHellenic council the national PanHellenic meets
with girls interested in pledging a sorority. Except the girls only speak with the one sorority they
are interested in pledging. They have many things in common in that aspect. But they also differ

They differ because it is more secretive when pledging for the NPHC. A lot of times
people do not know what organization another person is pledging. Its a very private process
where they teach the history of the specific sorority to the people that are pledging that sorority.
Their pledging process lasts two weeks, which differs, from the PanHellenic council that lasts for
one week. Also the day you are revealed and chosen to be apart of the NPHC sorority your
whole family and friends and some of campus come out to see you. The pledges usually step,
and this is called Probate.

When Lauren Schlabach was asked what she thought of or new about the NPHC, she
said:
Our sisterhood does go beyond college but I dont think its as intense. Because I know
with AKA and like Deltas they I mean you wear your letters for life, if you are that, you
are that for life, and with us, we do and we love our sorority and stuff but once youre out
of college you dont like we dont necessarily wear our letters everyday. Youre kind of
like, I mean we obviously still have our pins and stuff but we dont wear them all the

Sorority Life
time, but obviously if someone was in trouble or needed help that would be different but
yeah. (L. Schlabach, personal communication, September 28, 2014).

Which is true, most people are unaware of the commitment that the NPHC has after graduation.
The PanHellenic council does not share the same commitment, but during college they are much
more visible than the NPHC.

Stereotypes

Another thing both organizations have in

common is the stereotype of excessive partying. A lot
of people assume if you are in a sorority you spend
most your time drinking and hanging out with Frat
boys. In movies such as Neighbors (Seth Rogan.
(Producer), & Nicholas Stoller (director) (May 9,
2014) Neighbors (Motion Picture) United States (universal pictures). (pictured to the right)
people apart of Greek life are depicted as destroying things. The movie stars Zach Efron as a
young man in a fraternity who throws parties that are too loud and disturbs his neighbors. The
neighbors are unhappy and plot against him and at the end everyone gets arrested for disturbing
the peace. This is very untrue for both organizations. Most of the houses owned by sororities and
fraternities in the PanHellenic council do not throw parties, and there have been no arrests of that
nature. Does this stereotype have any truth?

The Truth Behind the Stereotypes

Sorority Life
From my research I have not found a lot of truth in this. There are (like in every culture)

people who fit the stereotype, but most people do not. You have to maintain a certain GPA to be
in a sorority on campus period. So the excessive partying and drinking would be difficult to
accomplish with all of the other work that comes with it. Both the NPHC and the PanHellenic
council participate in many charity events. These are the more positive things about the culture a
lot of people do not see. This is an Image of the
Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority having a hunger
drive. This is not what a lot of people see when
they think of Sororities and fraternities.

If the

NPHC and the PanHellenic council have so much

in common why are they separate?

This is a major problem on our campus. It

serparates the cultues and keeps the University of Kentuckys campus more segregated. This
very much affects the culture on campus. On many campuses the councils are the exact same
thing and they are not separate. Due to the fact that one is more present than the other, most
people have the wrong impression. During orientation they give a presentation on Greek life at
Kentucky. Only the members of the PanHellenic council were present. The National PanHellenic
council had a booth outside of the function. The attention was more focused on the PanHellenic
council, which did not give people the equal opportunity to look at both organizations.

A lot of minorities did not feel welcome in a room for predominately Caucasian
organizations. This gave an opportunity for the stereotypes to become partial truths. Since the
presentation lacked diversity many minorities did not even look at the PanHellenic council. This

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continues what people have believed to be true about this organization for another year. This
also does not give Caucasians the opportunity to go look at the NPHC. The NPHC is not only
open to minorities it is open to everyone. So the opportunity to diversify the University of
Kentuckys Greek life was denied.

The things the organizations have in common definitely outweigh their differences. The
only thing separating them is race. The stereotypes and negativity towards sororities would be
decreased, and maybe more people would join.

Sororities are truly about sisterhoods and lifelong bonds. I myself am not apart of a
sorority, but my mother is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha. When she was diagnosed with
Crohns disease her sorority sisters came from all over the country to take care of my sister and
myself. There are a lot of people who judge and misperceive the sisterhood bond with a social
group.
The experience I had with my mothers sorority gave me a different perspective on them
as I entered college. She has Caucasian members in her sorority, which also gave me a different
perspective. The University of Kentucky needs to merge its councils so everyone has an equal
opportunity to look at all the sororities there are to offer and everyone can find the sisterhood in
which they truly belong. Not all organizations are presented to every girl and it does not leave
everyone with an equal opportunity.

The sorority life is more than just drinking, partying and walking around with your letters
on. Its more about being apart of an organization that embodies your belief. Sororities are where

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most people meet their life long friends. Its a home away from home when you are far away
from your home.

Conclusion
There are good, bad, and secret sides to every organization and culture. Sororities true
intentions are sisterhood and life long friendships. The path to achieving this can be long and
hard and can result in many accidents, drinking, and hazing. At the end of the day every culture
has its fault. The intentions of the sorority are not bad; Especially the sororities on the campus of
the University of Kentucky. Sisterhood is a bond that is built, and no sorority on this campus is
perfect. Ilyas Kassam once said It is important to be of pure intention than of perfect action,
and the intention of sororities is sisterhood and betterment, that is what they should be judged by.

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References

Hughley, M. (n.d.). A Paradox of Participation: Nonwhites in White Sororities and Fraternities.

Retrieved October 15, 2014.

Schlabach, Lauren. Person Interview. 28 September 2014

Wicks, Dakota. Personal Interview. 28 September 2014

Social Fraternities and Sororities - History, Characteristics of Fraternities and Sororities,

Reforms and Renewal. Retrieved October 23, 2014.

List of hazing deaths in the United States. (2014, October 18). Retrieved October 23, 2014.
Sorority Life. Retrieved October 23, 2014.

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