Quote:
Originally Posted by scbelle
I think bringing national sororities would be a step in the right direction. I don't understand why men are allowed to have fraternities if women can't have sororities. Fraternities come with benefits that follow way beyond graduation, as do sororities. Those benefits include continued leadership cultivation, tradition and networking to name a few. Eating houses do not offer the same benefits. So why are women forced to make those concessions when they are accepted to and attend Davidson?
From what I know of a lot of alumnae friends, they are also vehemently opposed to bringing sororities. They chose to attend Davidson based on the fact that it did not have sororities. I don't know if it's because they don't fully understand what a sorority is (I know Davidson people are smart, but I get the sense that they buy into the sterotypes).
At any rate, I understand the earlier alumnae position, since it was a very volatile time for feminism. My dad had graduated the spring before women were allowed to receive degrees (women could come to classes), so he really wasn't too privy to the atmosphere on campus to be of any historical use to me for this topic. But I don't understand why men have fraternities, the campus will be adding Alpha Kappa Alpha in the fall, and eating houses can't go national. To me, that just doesn't sound very equal.
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Knowing the situation at Davidson, I am totally in agreement with you. I was just curious as to what you would say. It seems like the early women alums (eg, the women alums who wield the most power, as Davidson is relatively new to the coeducational thing) are so against sororities without having thought through the benefits and risk management national GLOs can provide. I would say my aunt is just such a one--she's horrified I joined a sorority at W&L but can never provide a legitimate reason (in my mind at least) why my sorority is worse than Davidson's eating clubs. I always felt that my aunt never "got it" and that on many of her own standards my sorority would far exceed the eating clubs (no detriment implied to the eating clubs of course...)
Again, I would (with you) question the fact that the true feminist choice is eating clubs...
It'll be interesting to see what happens over the next several years at Davidson as alumnae women from the 90s and 00s take power... I love my aunt dearly, but I know her political stances (which are intimately tied to Davidson's coeducation, the Davidson region in the 1970s, and the larger political situation of the 1970s) are tied to her thoughts about the situation. Yet I also know that she and women and like her have a LOT of pull in internal affairs there....
anyway thanks for your perspective. It was so interesting to compare views.