The first sorority to demand equal rights

[DSTCHAOS]

Originally Posted by AOII Angel

I agree with you in theory, but this thread had gotten a little dismissive of the NPC.

You all are dismissing yourselves. I asked a question and never got an answer. If NPC women were involved at a macro level, just share the dern info. I'd think you all would be proud to do so instead of making excuses.

Originally Posted by AOII Angel

This quote in particular was offensive, "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."

And I stand by my quote 100%. You all made it about the NPC as a whole because you feel that it applies to the NPC as a whole. Simple as that.

An NPHC sorority who had a thread in which they boasted on having the first tea on a college campus during times of great social inequalities and turmoil would get the same "but what else have you REALLY done" questions from us. If they couldn't answer for their sorority, they could at least remind us of what OTHER NPHC sororities did during those times. But the NPC women in this thread did not even do that.

I won't even get into the history behind the women's suffrage movement. Suffice it to say that the women's suffrage movement (and the women's liberation movement) far more impacted white middle class women than it did poor white women and racial and ethnic minority women. So how is that possible if a substantial percentage of college enrolled and college educated women who were also in sororities were not actually in the struggle on a macro level besides going to school? History lesson, anyone?

[tld221]

Originally Posted by DSTCHAOS

You all are dismissing yourselves. I asked a question and never got an answer. If NPC women were involved at a macro level, just share the dern info. I'd think you all would be proud to do so instead of making excuses.



And I stand by my quote 100%. You all made it about the NPC as a whole because you feel that it applies to the NPC as a whole. Simple as that.

An NPHC sorority who had a thread in which they boasted on having the first tea on a college campus during times of great social inequalities and turmoil would get the same "but what else have you REALLY done" questions from us. If they couldn't answer for their sorority, they could at least remind us of what OTHER NPHC sororities did during those times. But the NPC women in this thread did not even do that.

I won't even get into the history behind the women's suffrage movement. Suffice it to say that the women's suffrage movement (and the women's liberation movement) far more impacted white middle class women than it did poor white women and racial and ethnic minority women. So how is that possible if a substantial percentage of college enrolled and college educated women who were also in sororities were not actually in the struggle on a macro level besides going to school? History lesson, anyone?

i'm being WAY presumptious here, but can we chalk this debate up to different priorities between NPC and NPHC? I'm sure particular members of NPC orgs had made contributions to the women's movement, as members of the NPHC did. It could be a difference of how well it was documented, the time difference (as DSTCHAOS mentioned, late 1800s vs early 1900s, were talking a difference of 20-30 years?) and what each group of women defined as what was important in the fight for "equal rights," from ironing after-hours (im not sure what that means exactly) to marching in the women's suffrage march in 1920 (which, as its noted that had SGRho existed then, my founders most likely would've been alongside DST).

im talking out of thin air here, but maybe this is borderline apples-oranges of an argument?

[DSTCHAOS]

Originally Posted by tld221

im talking out of thin air here, but maybe this is borderline apples-oranges of an argument?

I dunno.

The movement existed and there were women involved. Fact. I didn't know that the NPC sororities got together and as whole decided to focus on the individual woman. Learn something new everyday. Cool.

As far as documentation. People often find the info that they want to find. I find it hard to believe that none of the sororities would have that information available to anyone.

[nittanyalum]

Originally Posted by DSTCHAOS

I won't even get into the history behind the women's suffrage movement. Suffice it to say that the women's suffrage movement (and the women's liberation movement) far more impacted white middle class women than it did poor white women and racial and ethnic minority women. So how is that possible if a substantial percentage of college enrolled and college educated women who were also in sororities were not actually in the struggle on a macro level besides going to school? History lesson, anyone?

I will! I think more and more, it's too easy for young women (and heck, old women) to forget how long and how hard women had to fight. March being Women's History Month, this discussion is particularly apropos.

The women's rights movement did cross efforts with the civil rights movment, but as DSTCHAOS mentioned in a later post, how much parity came out of it for caucasian vs. african american women is up for debate. Clearly, African American women face additional discriminations based solely on their skin color.

To the NPC/NPHC debate (LOL at Senusret he's just determined to have a full-on "race war" somewhere on this forum!), I think what you'll find in the history of NPCs are individual members who may have been active in the women's movement (ala my girl H.E. Butterfield), but working on behalf of the movement was not on the agenda of the NPC orgs themselves. Our founders, though, without a doubt, were pioneers on their campuses and did their own thing to promote women in their time and place.

NPHC orgs seem to have a much higher level involvement as a whole with the rights movements, so while I don't think it's necessarily an apples to oranges thing, I do think there are much different national directives about the role the national org should take in these larger national "causes".

Some interesting reads that provide info. on most of the above:
A Short History of the Women's Movement: http://www.legacy98.org/move-hist.html -- about halfway down, under "The Movement Expands", notable activists are named, among them are Ida B. Wells and Mary Church Terrell , the only 2 black women to sign the petition that led to the formation of the NAACP, and just overall kick-a$$ ladies. And here's an article from a 2002 edition of Black Issues in Higher Education entitled Did black folks gain from the women's movement?

[SWTXBelle]

All my NPC history books are packed, so I can't contribute as I would like now.