Bound by a Mighty Vow: Sisterhood and Women's Fraternities, 1870-1920

by Diana B. Turk

Book Overview

A look at the intricate history of collegiate women's support networks--otherwise known as sororities

Sororities are often thought of as exclusive clubs for socially inclined college students, but Bound by a Mighty Vow, a history of the women's Greek system, demonstrates that these organizations have always served more serious purposes. Diana Turk explores the founding and development of the earliest sororities (then called women's fraternities) and explains how these groups served as support networks to help the first female collegians succeed in the hostile world of nineteenth century higher education.

Turk goes on to look at how and in what ways sororities changed over time. While the first generation focused primarily on schoolwork, later Greek sisters used their fraternity connections to ensure social status, gain access to jobs and job training, and secure financial and emotional support as they negotiated life in turn-of-the-century America. The costs they paid were conformity to certain tightly prescribed beliefs of how "ideal" fraternity women should act and what "ideal" fraternity women should do.

Drawing on primary source documents written and preserved by the fraternity women themselves, as well as on oral history interviews conducted with fraternity officers and alumnae members, Bound by a Mighty Vow uncovers the intricate history of these early women's networks and makes a bold statement about the ties that have bound millions of American women to one another in the name of sisterhood.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0814782825
• ISBN13: 9780814782828
• Release Date: June 2004
• Publisher: New York University Press
• Length: 251 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

Approachable study of sorority origins

I am a sorority alumna and adviser. The best thing I got out of this book was an understanding of the true purpose of most sororities when they started and how they struggled to balance the needs of their collegiate and alumnae members as the organizations aged. So many people now think of sororities as simply social organizations that I think it would be amazing if they understood that these groups were created to encourage female students who were outnumbered and looked down upon as they integrated colleges and universities. As sororities aged their alumnae members faced many of the concerns and negative stereotypes that we are facing again and I hope we can learn something from the way they handled these problems a century ago.

Excellent resource

I am currently a doctoral candidate in the field of education and picked up this book more out of curiosity than anything else. I was really gripped from the beginning and what was originally going to be a hasty perusal became a deep and rich resource. Turk pushes preconceptions and notions of sororities by uncovering layers of meaning that these early fraternities had for the women involved in them. She is able to convey through a wide use of fascinating primary documents the ways these groups supported and encouraged women in early co-educational colleges. She also is able to create a convincing narrative of how they evolved from their original goals and purposes in response to changing situations for women and the historical context they reflect. Overall I found this personally fascinating and professionally enlightening. It did much to alter my understanding of sororities and early college experiences for women in this country.