Quote:
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!
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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!!