The American College Sorority: Its Role in Class and Ethnic Endogamy

Abstract

The college sorority, though academically disesteemed, is sociologically relevant as an agent of ascriptive groups, maintaining normative controls over courtship which in simpler societies require less specialized expression. Norms of endogamy persist in industrial societies, applying more strongly to women than to men, and being harder to maintain in higher strata, Religionand class-specific schools provide control, but most students today attend heterogeneous public campuses. Since nubile appeal is high at collegiate ages control by postponing marriage would disadvantage women. Ascriptive control therefore calls for an organization which simultaneously will discourage improper marriage and encourage proper marriage; further it must operate where opportunities and temptations for exogamy and hypogamy are strong and at a physical remove from those most committed to control. This being the theory of the sorority, the paper concludes with illustrative description.