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In North America, fraternities and sororities (Latin: fraternitas and sororitas, 'brotherhood' and 'sisterhood') are social clubs at colleges and universities.They are sometimes collectively referred to as Greek life or Greek-letter organizations, as well as collegiate fraternities or collegiate sororities to differentiate them from traditional not (exclusively) university-based fraternal ...
While most of the traditional women's fraternities or sororities were founded decades before the start of the 20th century, the first ever specifically Christian-themed Greek Letter Organization formed was the Kappa Phi Club, founded in Kansas in 1916. Kappa Phi was a women's sisterhood that developed out of a bible study and remains one of the ...
Like their college counterparts, most have Greek letter names. They also each possessed a secret ritual and handshake and a Greek-letter name which, like college fraternities was usually derived from the abbreviation of a secret Greek motto. These groups were identified by a coat-of-arms and members wore distinctive fraternity badges or pins.
A fraternity is usually understood to mean a social organization composed only of men, and a sorority is composed of women. However, many women's organizations and co-ed organizations also refer to themselves as women's fraternities. This list of North American collegiate sororities and women's fraternities is not exhaustive.
As with men's fraternities, women's fraternities would largely be inspired or preceded by student societies with Greek-inspired names but without Greek letters. The Adelphean Society was established in 1851 at Wesleyan College in Macon, Georgia, making it the first secret society for collegiate women.
The new generation of cultural interest organizations has arisen to serve the interests of communities whose numbers in the traditional Greek system are historically small and dispersed. Following is a list of national cultural interest fraternities and sororities.
The colors of Sigma Delta Tau are cafe au lait and old blue. The sorority's symbol is the torch, which is also the name of its national publication. The current badge is a jeweled gold torch. On the front of the torch are the Greek letters ΣΔΤ, with six pearls and a diamond. The badge is worn as an emblem of membership by initiated members.
It was the first Greek-letter fraternity established for women. [1] [2] The organization has 147 chapters at colleges and universities in the United States and Canada. The organization was the first women's fraternity to establish a chapter in Canada. [3] Theta's total living initiated membership, as of 2020, was more than 250,000. [3]