The first sorority to demand equal rights

[AOII Angel]

Originally Posted by ladygreek

That is good. But you are talking about one person and I am talking about one of the premises from which a sorority was founded.

Originally Posted by DSTCHAOS

Great info!

Was women's suffrage also a national and local initiative for Theta?

Delta Founders marched in the 1913 Women's Suffrage March in D.C. (during a time where there were huge racial inequalities to compound the huge gender inequalities).

Originally Posted by DSTCHAOS

Yet not every sorority was actively involved in national and local equality initiatives.

On an organizational level, it isn't enough to just exist. It isn't even enough to just be able to boast that one of your chapters was able to get equal ironing and smoking rights on campus.

Now, in some ways I agree with you, but remember that many of the NPC sororities were formed by very young women who were looking for equality but weren't capable of leading the campaign. Also, many people in the Women's suffrage movement disagreed on the appropriate path to obtain equality. While a few women were militant in their attempts to push change, many women believed that the race for equality was best won through education. This is the path chosen by the NPC sororities founded before 1920. Of course, some NPC groups were founded for other reasons including religious inclusion. NPC sororities, therefore, did participate actively in women's suffrage by encouraging women to get an education and become well rounded women who were interested in working in the community rather than just wives and mothers with no more than a grade school education.
NPHC groups however had a different mindset from the beginning. I think they should be commended for their activism, but downplaying the NPCs involvement in the equality movement is not fair.