"Bound by a Might Vow" -- sorority history

[exlurker]

A new book, "Bound by a Mighty Vow" by Diana Turk, is now available. It has been mentioned in a few posts earlier, before it was published. I've read it, and maybe other GC people would like to discuss it -- so here goes.

First of all, it's scholarly, not sensational and popularized like "Pledged." We're talking about over 55 pages of notes, nearly a dozen pages of bibliography, and a 10-page index here, in the paperback version. It covers the period 1870-1920 and relies heavily on the archives of Kappa Alpha Theta.

Diana Turk acknowledges the groundbreaking scholarly work of Paula Giddings ("In Search of Sisterhood") and refers to works by Marianme Sanua (whose book "Going Greek" appeared last year). As Giddings did with Delta Sigma Theta and as Sanua did with Alpha Epsilon Phi (and Zeta Beta Tau in the portions of her book dealing with Jewish fraternities), Turk uses Kappa Alpha Theta as a "case study" of the early development of women's fraternities.

It's interesting to see from "Bound by a Mighty Vow" that many of the issues and concerns brought up in GC threads today were living issues in the early years of the growth of national sororities: elaborate and competitive rushing, the development of the recommendation system, questions about expansion (which campuses? what kinds of students?), and attention to legacies.

Turk is good on the subject of support and friendship in the early years, when women were a novelty at many schools, and male students and faculty members were at times hostile to the idea of women in higher education. She also points out the development of various kinds of exclusivity that came to be associated with many sororities later in the time period she deals with: social class, white Protestantism, and certain norms of behavior and appearance. The value of networking opportunities -- both social and for jobs -- gets stressed.

The increase in alumnae control over official national sorority affairs is well documented. So are instances of tension between chapters that led to some chapters closing (or being threatened with closure).

Within the constraints of the source material available to her, and her own objectives in writing the study, Turk's work seems pretty successful and balanced. What is, admittedly, missing is detailed information and examples from GLOs other than Theta. Consequently, there's not a substantive discussion of the birth, growth and development of the sororities that became national in the period of -- roughly -- 1895 to 1910. This means that the challenges, college and societal environment, and organizational response of the "new kids on the block" -- especially "southern" groups and the "education" sororities -- aren't touched on. The world of higher education that Phi Mu, KD, Alpha Gamma Delta, Delta Zeta, Alpha Sigma Alpha, Sigma Sigma Sigma (and so on) entered was distinctly different from the world of the 1870s and early 1880s, and perhaps another scholar will be able to write about the times and issues affecting that newer set of women's groups.

The use of Theta as a "case study" also means that there may be a slight "view from the top" slant, probably unconscious. Numerous general references to "Kappa Alpha Theta, Kappa Kappa Gamma, and Pi Beta Phi", with "Alpha Phi" or "Gamma Phi Beta" occasionally thrown into that phraseology, tend to reinforce a somwhat limited perspective, especially for the period after 1895 or 1900. While Theta, Kappa and Pi Phi, simply because of their age and expansion history, were "typical" in the 1870s and early 1880s, they were not necessarily "typical" by 1910, 1915 or 1920.

All in all, an interesting read. Hope to learn what others thought of it.


For people seriously interested in the history of Greek life -- especially sororities -- the book is valuable. As the book's introduction notes, the history of historically white Greek sororities is largely unknown (at least to academic historians), and much work remains to be done.