The first sorority to demand equal rights

[bejazd]

I hope a nice Alpha Phi will chime in here on the contributions of Frances Willard and how she influenced Alpha Phi.

The women's movement for equality had the support of important and influential men as well. Of note to Gamma Phis is Dr. Erastus O. Haven, father of our founder Frances E. Haven. He was a senator from Massachusetts, a pastor, and educator who became the president of the Univ of Michigan. He left Michigan to become the president of Northwestern Univ, where Frances Willard was the Dean of the separate women's college. Dr Haven accepted the position of president at Northwestern on the condition that Northwestern become a co-educational institution, which it did, under the collaboration of Dr Haven and Frances Willard. In 1872 Dr Haven became the Secretary for the Board of Education for the Methodist-Episcopal Church and he fought for women to be allowed to enroll at the Methodist colleges. In 1874 he became the Chancellor of Syracuse University and enrolled his daughter Frances, who founded Gamma Phi Beta with three friends that fall.

The very earliest Alpha Phis and Gamma Phis at Syracuse must have been keenly aware of the activities of Susan B Anthony, who was tried and convicted in 1873 in New York for illegally voting in the 1872 presidential election.