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[FSUZeta]

i found my old pledge manual (1975)and will quote directly from it :

"zeta tau alpha is known as a fraternity, not as a sorority. a "fraternity" is an organization whose members have banded together for reasons of common interest and mutual benefit. there is usually some element of secrecy in its design. the terms "sorority" and "fraternity" are often used interchangeably and it is frequently necessary to do so. some women's organizations prefer "sorority", while others designate the use of "fraternity". current usage seems to favor the latter to distinguish collegiate organizations from high school or business clubs using Greek letter names and calling themselves "sororities." it was the intent of the Founders and confirmed by action at two early conventions that zeta tau alpha be designated as a "fraternity". this was done to distinguish our organization from the sisterhoods organized in connection with men's fraternities, called "sororities."

i would venture to guess that at the time of our founding, there were women's auxillary organizations linked to fraternities, much like little sister organizations of my era, and they were calling themselves sororoties.

honest to goodness, all those years ago, it never crossed my mind that fraternity and sorority could not be used interchangeably. everyone referred to the girls as members of sororities.in fact, i thought it was odd that we are a women's fraternity.

to me, it is "you say potato and i say po tah toe." we all have strong sisterhoods and do good works. enough said!

[AlphaFrog]

Originally Posted by FSUZeta

honest to goodness, all those years ago, it never crossed my mind that fraternity and sorority could not be used interchangeably. everyone referred to the girls as members of sororities.in fact, i thought it was odd that we are a women's fraternity.

I found it odd when I was at ChiO's rush party (back when I rushed) and they said "women's fraternity", because they were the only one out of 7 orgs on my campus. ASA, AST, DZ, PhiSig, SigKap, and Sigma are all sororities, and, of course, we had "Sorority Recruitment", so I didn't quite get why ChiO kept saying "fraternity". Throw that under the "dumb reasons for cutting a group" thread...I didn't want to be in a fraternity!!!

[NutBrnHair]

Originally Posted by AlphaFrog

I found it odd when I was at ChiO's rush party (back when I rushed) and they said "women's fraternity", because they were the only one out of 7 orgs on my campus. ASA, AST, DZ, PhiSig, SigKap, and Sigma are all sororities, and, of course, we had "Sorority Recruitment", so I didn't quite get why ChiO kept saying "fraternity". Throw that under the "dumb reasons for cutting a group" thread...I didn't want to be in a fraternity!!!

I usually just say "my sorority" when talking to non-members because it is confusing and unnecessary to have to explain the difference to someone who could care less.

[scbelle]

Originally Posted by FSUZeta

i found my old pledge manual (1975)and will quote directly from it :

"zeta tau alpha is known as a fraternity, not as a sorority. a "fraternity" is an organization whose members have banded together for reasons of common interest and mutual benefit. there is usually some element of secrecy in its design. the terms "sorority" and "fraternity" are often used interchangeably and it is frequently necessary to do so. some women's organizations prefer "sorority", while others designate the use of "fraternity". current usage seems to favor the latter to distinguish collegiate organizations from high school or business clubs using Greek letter names and calling themselves "sororities." it was the intent of the Founders and confirmed by action at two early conventions that zeta tau alpha be designated as a "fraternity". this was done to distinguish our organization from the sisterhoods organized in connection with men's fraternities, called "sororoties."

i would venture to guess that at the time of our founding, there were women's auxillary organizations linked to fraternities, much like little sister organizations of my era, and they were calling themselves sororoties.

honest to goodness, all those years ago, it never crossed my mind that fraternity and sorority could not be used interchangeably. everyone referred to the girls as members of sororities.in fact, i thought it was odd that we are a women's fraternity.

to me, it is "you say potato and i say po tah toe." we all have strong sisterhoods and do good works. enough said!

Is "sororoties" a direct quote from the manual or a typo? Because if it is the word used (versus sororities), that explains a lot to me. ZTA would definitely want to use fraternity opposed to "sororoty"... and then SthrnZeta's comment shouldn't really be so offensive to Gamma Phi Beta because they coined the term "sorority"... not the word that ZTA was adamant against using. Man, that was a lot of typing if that was a typo!!

[FSUZeta]

Originally Posted by scbelle

Is "sororoties" a direct quote from the manual or a typo? Because if it is the word used (versus sororities), that explains a lot to me. ZTA would definitely want to use fraternity opposed to "sororoty"... and then SthrnZeta's comment shouldn't really be so offensive to Gamma Phi Beta because they coined the term "sorority"... not the word that ZTA was adamant against using. Man, that was a lot of typing if that was a
typo!!

oh puh-leeze! it is a typo on my part. my proofreader took the morning off and i have arthritis and sometimes my fingers don't work as well as they used to. i will correct it right away.

alphafrog, i took nothing personally, just wanted to clarify that i was just guessing along with everyone else. maybe someone can find the answer for us. i'll bet if anyone could, it would be the woman who had compiled the online greekpages. what was her name?

[SWTXBelle]

I just figured that if ZTA had it as part of the pledge manual, there must be some reason - perhaps as has been mentioned it was a local group, and thus off our NPC radars. The paragraph does seem to imply that sororities were "little sister" type groups, which we've established is not the case in terms of NPC sororities, none of which were formed as support groups for any fraternities. So, my question is what group(s) was ZTA thinking of when writing that paragraph?
(And I love that you have your pledge manual , FSUZeta- wish I could find mine!)

[33girl]

Originally Posted by SWTXBelle

I just figured that if ZTA had it as part of the pledge manual, there must be some reason - perhaps as has been mentioned it was a local group, and thus off our NPC radars. The paragraph does seem to imply that sororities were "little sister" type groups, which we've established is not the case in terms of NPC sororities, none of which were formed as support groups for any fraternities. So, my question is what group(s) was ZTA thinking of when writing that paragraph?

Especially since ZTA was founded at an all-female school. The only conclusion I come to is that it's referring to KD, and I've never heard anything (granted, I don't know their history that well) that says any man had anything to do w/ KD's founding.

Maybe there was a bunch of townies hanging around the Hampden-Sydney dudes calling themselves a sorority and being annoying.

[SydneyK]

Originally Posted by 33girl

Especially since ZTA was founded at an all-female school. The only conclusion I come to is that it's referring to KD....

Perhaps it was due to ZTA's being founded after both KD and Tri Sigma (at Longwood). Perhaps, since the first two were called sororities, ZTA's founders felt the need to differentiate themselves by calling themselves a fraternity.

[SWTXBelle]

But then why the reference to an association with men's fraternities?