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James, you pose an interesting question. You have asked about all the women who drop out of sorority rush because they are not willing to pledge a house of lower prestige. You've asked whether that's a problem, and if so, what is the solution.
I believe I know the answer (as I believe you do too), but there are two problems: 1) Women are smarter than us men generally, and since they are aware of that they assume that our answer carries no real importance and that they alone are right about all things to do with sorority rush; and 2) since we are guys and have enough to keep us busy with our own fraternity chapters, we should consider the possibility that sorority rush is none of our business.
That said, I am happy to provide the simple answer to your question: free enterprise.
Sorority formal rush has evolved into the most rigidly structured form of socialism. Everyone except the very worst chapter is guaranteed a pledge class, and the top chapters are guaranteed a top pledge class with very little effort on their part. The aboslute worst is deferred formal rush. By January, everyone knows who's who. Potential members certainly know who's on top, and who's on the bottom, and as for the middle - well, who cares?
Yet, the most vocal and most passionate supporters of formal soroity rush with all its convoluted terms and rules seem to be the chapters that dwell in the lower half of the heirarchy. They cling to the myth - somehow, for some reason - that the Panhellenic ideal is that we all love each other and all houses are equally respected, and that it doesn't really matter which house you join because we're all Greeks together working on Homecoming floats and Dance Marathon and isn't that the most important thing after all...
The sororities at the top benefit the most. They have the reputations, and they know that even if they TRY to screw up in rush they're going to do well, because they know no matter what happens, under the rigid rule structure YOUR sorority is never allowed to pledge any more girls than MY sorority. There's literally no chance that some dynamic, enthusiastic, creative rush chairman and her chapter can come in and clean your clock. If quota is 45, they're not allowed to pedge 70 and set the campus on its ear. We had this discussion in another thread about fraternities at Oklahoma. Until recent years a have-not, the upstart Sig Eps pledged 75 men - about 25 more than the IFC "allowed" - as a way of breaking into the elite. The biggest complaints came not from the top tier fraternities, but from those in the middle or near the bottom. "SigEp took guys we would have gotten." Well, you should have gotten them yourself anyway, if you were ambitious. You see, the middle tier houses have no ambition to be anything other than what they are. They seem astonished ny the fact that given the choice, men would rather have a Mercedes than a Kia provided that the cost is the same. The mid-tier groups want the protection of limiting the number of Mercedes sold. Yes, they're guaranteed to sell some Kias, but they'll never have Mercedes dealership.
A free enterprise system for sororities would mean that any given sorority has the opportunity to improve their standing in the pecking order. At large, established systems such an opportunity does not now exist.
Free enterprise for sororities does not mean that they have to give up formal rush. But, if you want to see more women in the system, and fewer drop out of rush, then remove the caps (total) and restrictions on rush (quota). Let XYZ sorority earn their pledge class, and let lower-standing-but-ambitious ABC sorority pledge as many as they want in formal rush. To say the low-performers can always rush later like saying the law is fair because prohibits kings as well as beggers from sleeping under bridges. In the minds of rushees, when formal rush is over, it's ALL over. Often, sororities forced to open rush afterward lack confidence to be effective and are stigmitized as being not good enough.
If rush is wide open from a numbers standpoint, then the different chapters will rush differently. They won't all have the same skits and all sing the same praises of the Panhellenic Ideal. Those who are more aggressive will be rewarded; those who are lazy will pay a price. I've heard some on this board imply that "a pledge class of 75 or a chapter of 200 is unweildy." Why? What do you care? What business is it of yours? If So-and-So sorority is the one everyone is dying to join, let them pledge 100 if they want. If their chapter grows to 300 or 400, then according to those who say it's "unweildy", that sorority will collapse under its own weight and someone else will take their place. The fact is that those things just don't happen. In a free system, there's always someone who's lazy and loses their grip on the top spot, and there's always someone else who's ambitious and wants to take it from them. In a free system, the rushees are impressed by the dynamic sales abilities that sorority women are then allowed to show.
Here's a simple question: in a sorority formal rush, if quota is 35 and total is, say 100, why can't the small 30-member sorority pledge 50 or 60 girls in formal rush if they can get them to join? Panhellenic can provide no legitimate answer to that question. "It's the rules", they say and cast their eyes Heavenward as if to say I wish we could help you but we can't possibly violate the sanctity of The Rules, even if it makes sense.
What would such changes accomplish? Well, free enterprise would bring more women into the system, and the system would be forced to add new chapters to meet increased demand. Women might start out wanting to join XYZ because of their reputation, but once exposed to the unconventional rush tactics of ABC, they might find they like that experience more.
Isn't all this kind of what you had in mind, James?
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