Thread: sisters
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Old 08-26-2004, 12:48 AM
Firehouse Firehouse is offline
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Join Date: Nov 2002
Posts: 779
Sorry, you are correct. Even the National Interfraternity Conference (NIC) now has a policy against Little Sisters. They were fabulously successful and popular, but they were axed in the 1990s because national sororities didn't like them.
Several reasons are always given - always very somberly and with pained sincerity. The standard reasons are: 1) Little Sisters provided greater exposure for liability; 2) Little Sister organizations would give anti-fraternity types the opportunity to challenge the single-sex legal status of our organizations.
Well, I don't think laibility was really an issue. The girls were not "members" in any sense, but merely informal social affiliates. A simple set of do's and don'ts from national offices would have removed the liability objection. And frankly, Little Sisters made the guys behave better toward women. It was a healthy relationship. If anything, the girls helped influence the boys toward behavior that relieved liability.
As far as challenging the single sex status of fraternities, that status is protected by established Federal law, and was re-affirmed in 1996 with the passage of the Federal Freedom of Association Act.
No, what was really behind the demise of Little Sisters was the realization by sororities that non-sorority women could have full & free access to fraternities without having to join a sorority. If a girl could affiliate with a top fraternity for little or no financial outlay, why should she feel compelled to endure the rigidly structured world of sororities?
The National Sororities told the National Fraternities to get rid of them, and they did. Case closed, and too bad for it.

Last edited by Firehouse; 08-26-2004 at 12:51 AM.
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