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I think the main key is education. Education of members, new members and all the volunteers who work with them as to what we consider hazing and what is expected. Volunteer advisors, province officers, area officers, etc., must be on board with the anti-hazing campaign. (Some older alum can have the worst hazing attitudes because "we did, why shouldn't they?" can dominate their way of thinking).
Second would be close involvement, meaning, advisors who are involved with the chapter on the Exec board need to keep a close eye on the pulse of the chapter as well as be approachable resources so that if a member feels uncomfortable with an activity, they feel comfortable talking to one of the advisors about it. Travelling consultants who keep an ear open at each house they visit to listen for certain buzz words. The exec council sends their reports to a number of the volunteer services team who READ them and watch for buzz words or discrepancies between different officers reports. Event planning forms sent to volunteers who serve as risk management specialists, who have to approve or deny each event based on our risk management criteria. Submission of each Pre Initiation Week activity with DETAILED descriptions of what will occur at the activity.
Third would be effective programming. This goes hand in hand with number one but goes further than saying "this is what hazing is and why it's wrong". It includes "this is how you can alter your traditions to make them non-hazing activities" and includes brainstorming new activity ideas. Helping them fit activities to our Purpose.
Finally, zero tolerance. Members who haze cannot continue to be members. Most sorority hazing I read or hear about now is conducted by a couple members who circumvent the exec council or officers and do it on a whim. Chapters who haze as a whole, cannot continue to be chapters. The definition of what hazing is has become more and more strict over the years. Hazing has more to do with an attitude that new members are inferior in some way and need to earn their way to equality with the members. We have levels of alert and probation that chapters are placed on to identify the risky attitudes and behaviors with directives that must be met. Changing these attitudes will take time, but it is changing slowly. With the chapters I oversee directly, it is definitely better than it was 10, 15, or 20 years ago.
Historically (and currently), hazing that occurs in sororities tended to be more mental, where hazing in fraternities was more physical. It is actually probably harder to detect and less likely to make the news (because they don't land in the hospital or jail over it). Most of the hazing laws in our country address physical harm and there is less evidence of that in the methods that sororities tend to use to haze. It is going to be more difficult as we see hazing occurring more frequently in the high schools and in more physical ways (thinking of the high school powder puff incident) to keep it out of the colleges/universities.
It may be easier with sororities too, because you can appeal to the "how did you FEEL when this was happening" or "how would you FEEL if someone treated you this way" and women are more accustomed to tuning into their own feelings and discussing them than men are.
Dee
ETA: Having house mothers and dry houses for decades helps too, I think.
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