Shifting The Focus To Females

Google “definition of sorority.” Before your eyes the search engine will spit back at you the very stereotype that has haunted sororities and prevented them from gaining more widespread support from college goers and beyond: “a society for female students in a university or college, typically for social purposes.”

 
For social purposes—of course. The focus of sororities has always been on the social aspects that such organizations provide. While some of these social benefits are indeed positive—for example, finding lifelong friends or meeting a group of people who share your lifestyle and goals—those aren’t typically the first things people think of when they hear the word “social.”
 
So, then, what exactly is the purpose of a sorority, and, better yet, what do sorority women, like myself, want it to be? Of course everyone will have a different answer, but I don’t think I’m too far out of the ballpark when I say that sororities need and already have begun to reexamine their focus to be on the most obvious part of the definition—females.
 
Women in this day and age are experiencing newfound power in the workforce, politics, and heck, within ourselves; we’re running companies and campaigns, and saying “Screw you!” to the people who have told us for years what’s wrong with our bodies and our attitudes. While all of this is great, it only makes a significant impact if large groups of young women (hint, hint) vow to do what they can to be empowered and empower others.
 
Awesomely enough, there are many sororities that have made supporting and empowering women a main goal of their sisterhood. For example, Tri Delta chapters participate in Fat Talk Free Week—a week focused on body image issues and dedicated to making women feel confident with themselves. My own chapter of Delta Gamma at Loyola Marymount University has a self-defense class planned for later on this month to help our sisters feel strong and able to defend themselves in dangerous situations.
 
If we’re going to shift the focus of sororities to truly be about women and for women, more events like this are necessary in chapters throughout the nation; however, it will indeed take more than one week or one self-defense class a year to achieve this. It’s time to show the world that we care less about where our sisters are going on a Friday night and more about where they are going in life, that we challenge one another not to be the “best in show,” but the best we can be academically and philanthropically.
 
It’s up to us—sorority women—to change the stereotype. People can focus all they want on the negative generalizations of sorority life and sisterhood, or we can give them reasons to acknowledge the ways in which sororities are supporting and helping women to become empowered, shifting the last part of the definition from “social purposes” to “social change.”