The best way to sum up Greek Life is with this quote by a sorority called Phi Mu, “From the outside looking in, you can never understand it. From the inside looking out, you can never explain it.”
Joining Greek life has been one of the best decisions I have ever made. I found lifelong friends and connections, it instilled me with a culture of service and philanthropy, and it helps me make a continuous effort to diversify our membership. However, even though Greek Life has evolved since the beginning of the first Greek Letter Organization, the rules that govern sororities today remain startlingly outdated.
The National Panhellenic Council is the national organization that sets standards of national chapters and also overlooks 26 recognized sororities.The NPC also forbids the majority of all 26 chapters from having parties or serving alcohol in chapter houses, even if the members are 21 or older.
This is mostly due to the fact that it helps maintain lower insurance premiums.
According to The New York Times, fraternities that have parties and alcohol in their house pay more in dues because of the increased liability for property damages.
Even though fraternities are also Greek Organizations, they are not held accountable to the same rules.
Another example of this would be that fraternities are able to drink in their Greek Letters, but sororities cannot or else they will be written up to the honor council of their organization and be put on social probation. This means that you cannot attend any social events until you are off of probation. Also, you can no longer hold a position or vote on anything in chapter for that semester. So you pretty much have no say in anything for an entire semester.
A member of Greek Life from Duke University stated:
“The media is quick to spotlight fraternities for recent scandals... but people rarely question why only half of the participants in Greek Life — fraternity members — control the social scene in the first place.”
The difference in rules for parties/drinking is just one of many examples of the double standards that are highlighted between sororities and fraternities.
Another example would be sororities having strict rules regarding the presence of men in their house which include certain times that guys can be at the house and they have to be in the public common room, and they cannot stay past a certain time. Also, some chapters require a guest to sign in and out and/or sign a contract.
The no guys in the house rule, more or less implies that most relationships with males are promiscuous and should be condemned.
According to the Washington Post, Kelley Edler, a student from North Carolina State University, who is a part of Pi Beta Phi, stood up for her sister when their chapter was debating on whether or not to put the sister in question on social probation for sneaking a boy into her room.
Astonished, Edler questioned why they were debating on whether or not to take this woman's social privileges away simply because she had a man in her room.
Edler posed a very good question to in her testimony when sharing this story:
"It’s flawed because that barrier is really only symbolic. And the logic is flawed because women have been sexually assaulted in fraternity bedrooms countless times.”
“I am not arguing that fraternity men are sexually assaulting every woman that walks into their house. However, sexual assault is very prevalent, and fraternities have recently been in the spotlight for this subject. So why are men still allowed to have women in their bedrooms?”
Women, not only in Greek Life, but in general, have come such a long way by continuously breaking barriers in the academic and professional world.
Us women have taken on larger roles in society, but yet we are being held back by the constrictions imposed by the National Panhellenic Council, which keep in mind is a women's organization which is not reflecting women's progressive societal changes.
The National Panhellenic Council pushes us to believe that we can accomplish a career in any male-dominated field, however, what are we supposed to believe when we cannot have a male counterpart over past 8 pm and they can’t even leave the common room?
This doesn’t even allow us to have control over one of our most basic units of our daily lives, our living spaces.
These rules are put in place with good intentions. However, sorority women still deserve to make the same choices afforded to fraternity members.
This isn’t about sororities being angry that we can’t party or have guys over to our house past a certain time. It’s about being afforded the same rights as fraternities because we are apart of the same Greek Life.
A thing to remember is that the fault does not lie within fraternities, at Eastern, or nationally. It stems from the bureaucracy that sets these guidelines.
The National Panhellenic Council needs to start reframing their standards to fit today's society to help convey that sorority women can/should act as independent members of the community.
But most of all, we need to start asking why these gender discrepancies have existed for as long they have.
It's time to start being progressive and to stop with the double standards.
