Recently, I was having a conversation with a dear friend of mine who had just finished sorority rush at her university. After a stressful 10 days of rush, she ended up not receiving a bid from any chapters at her school. After this conversation, I talked to another friend of mine who’d recently been deceived by a few chapters on her campus that had recruited her for winter rush, before deciding they were not going to accept any new members. I started to think a lot about the rush recruitment process of Greek life at colleges and universities all around the country. I am lucky enough to be a part of a sorority that empowers me, makes me feel strong as a woman, and unites a group of different, unique, and passionate females. However, that is not how I felt during the sorority rush process at all. That is not what sorority rush sets out to do. The rush process completely debunks the positive aspects of joining a sorority by not uniting women under a community, but pitting them against one another.
When I decided to rush a sorority in the beginning of my freshman year of college I was told what an amazing opportunity it would be to be a part of Greek life—that I’d have a sense of community with my sisters that made me feel empowered, united, and strong among other women; that this community was built to create lasting bonds between women; that with your sisters being a woman would be celebrated. These things held true. I am so blessed to be a part of such a strong society of females. That being said, I have major issues with sorority rush that devalue the end empowerment of being in a sorority completely.
The rush process ranges from one to four weeks long depending on the school, and is a system in which females are judged, numbered, questioned, and persuaded by different chapters to “choose them.” The girls dress their very best, do their hair and makeup perfectly, and stand in lines of hundreds waiting to enter each house to be judged by its current members. The girls rushing are fighting for spots in each chapter, and slowly rush has become not a selection process for new members, but a competition. Who made the best first impression? Who had the coolest summer vacation? Who is the prettiest? Who is the thinnest? Who is the most talkative? Who has the nicest clothes? So many girls grated by the process are left without the promised chapter, the end goal. This is when I realized that sorority rush needs to change. The positive aspects of being in a sorority are wonderful, but it completely juxtaposes the end means if the process of getting there is catty, frightening, and demeaning. The rush system has become an institution, not a road to selecting a house that makes you feel comfortable, empowered, and confident. While frat rush includes selecting houses you want to rush and heading over to drink beer, eat pizza, and chat with brothers, sorority rush includes being told over and over again "we don't want you" putting on more lipgloss and going back in for day three.
The first sorority, Alpha Delta Pi, was created in 1851 at Wesleyan women’s College. It was created for the scholarship and fellowship of its female members. Soon after other sororities began springing up all around the country. Sororities began to be created to unify women pursuing higher education in a victorian era where literary societies, student government, athletic teams, and other clubs were restricted to male members only. These organizations were created to unite and bring together a group of people who were otherwise oppressed. How are we helping uphold all of the platforms these organizations were founded upon by putting women through such a degrading process?
There are problems with rush at all schools around the country. A process that is supposed to help women find a home that empowers them for the next four years is the opposite of empowering. How can anyone really know someone else after a single, timed, and most likely forced conversation? How is it possible to get a gauge on someone’s true personality if one meets with them for exactly 5 minutes, asks about their major and interests, compliments their dress, and leaves? How is it fair that women looking for a community to feel safe and secure under have to go through a process so petty that in the end, most feel they are not making a decision, but fighting desperately for a spot in the place they know they belong. How must it feel to end up in a chapter you didn’t feel comfortable with, because there was not room for you elsewhere. You’re told “sometimes people slip through the cracks” and “don’t take it personally, nobody truly knows you after one conversation” but how does that truly feel to a young woman who was just told “we don’t want you.”
As college aged females in a male dominant world, we are in no place to create institutions that further oppress women. Being in a sorority is a fantastic way to make new friends, meet amazing girls, and feel empowered to be a woman. That being said, getting to that place is the opposite of empowering. I hope that in my future involvement with Greek life, I am able to help regulate and change the rush process into something that is fair, comfortable, and empowering. I have joined the Panhellenic association as a Junior representative, and I am looking forward to furthering my ideas and my passionate beliefs as I continue my involvement in greek life. Women should absolutely never feel as though they “do not belong” somewhere, especially in a space created solely for a sense of unity, empowerment, and confidence between and among women.
