What do Margaret Chase Smith (Sigma Kappa), Shirley Chisholm (Delta Sigma Theta), Patricia Schroeder (Chi Omega), Elizabeth Dole (Delta Delta Delta), and Carol Moseley Braun (Delta Sigma Theta) have in common? They are sorority women who took steps to be their party’s nominee for President. As we approach the end of this election, let us remember some of the sorority women who helped get women the right to vote.
Carrie Lane Chapman Catt (1859-1947), Pi Beta Phi (Iowa State University). Catt was President of the National American Woman Suffrage Association from 1900-04 (and 1915-20, too). She was instrumental in the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment granting women the right to vote.
Carrie Chapman Catt wearing her Pi Beta Phi arrow. This picture was taken a few years after she graduated from Iowa State.
Mary Ritter Beard (1876-1958), Kappa Alpha Theta (DePauw University). Ritter was a suffragist and a noted historian.
Dorothy Canfield Fisher, Ph.D., (1879-1958), Kappa Kappa Gamma (Ohio State University). Fisher was an author, educational reformer, and social activist. After World War I, she did post-war relief work in Europe, enlisting her Kappa sisters’ assistance in helping orphaned children.
Alice Duer Miller (1874-1942), Kappa Kappa Gamma, Barnard College (Phi Beta Kappa, too!). Miller was an ardent suffragist. In the years when women were trying to gain the right to vote, she wrote a column, Are Women People? devoted to the cause of equal suffrage. In 1915, she penned:
“Mother, what is a feminist?”
“A feminist, my daughter,
Is any woman now who cares
to think about her own affairs
As men don’t think she oughter.”
Kappa Kappa Gamma, Beta Epsilon Chapter, Barnard College. Virginia Gildersleeve who is seated next to Alice Duer went on to serve Barnard College as Dean of Women. The International Federation of University Women honors her with a fund to help women throughout the world.
Ada Comstock Notestein (1876-1973), Delta Gamma, University of Minnesota. Notestein served as Dean of Women at Smith College from 1921-23. Since 1975, Smith College’s Ada Comstock Scholars Program has helped hundreds of non-traditional age women to complete a Bachelor of Arts. In addition, she served as President of the American Association of University Women from 1921-23 and President of Radcliffe College from 1923-43.
Ada Louise Comstock
E. Jean Nelson Penfield, (1872-1961), Kappa Kappa Gamma (DePauw University). Penfield was one of seven women who chartered the Woman’s Suffrage Party of Greater New York. She also served as Kappa Kappa Gamma’s National President.
E. Jean Nelson (Penfield) as a student
Edith and Grace Abbott, both Delta Gammas (University of Nebraska). Grace (1878-1939) was the highest ranking woman in the United States government for over a decade as the head of the U.S. Children’s Bureau from 1921-34. She was the first woman to be nominated for a Presidential cabinet position—Secretary of Labor (unfortunately her nomination was not confirmed). Edith (1876-1957) was the first woman to become dean of an American graduate school, the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration.
Reverend Doctor Anna Howard Shaw, (1847-1919), Kappa Alpha Theta (Wooster College) An honorary member (alumna initiate), Shaw was a suffragist, physician, first ordained female Methodist minister, and President of the National American Woman Suffrage Association.
Frances Willard, 1839-98, Alpha Phi (Syracuse University). Willard was an honorary member (alumna initiate) and she served as Alpha Phi’s National President. She was a suffragist, social reformer, and an American educator. She was also instrumental in the establishment of the second chapter of Alpha Phi at Northwestern University in 1881.
Frances Willard, Alpha Phi
For further evidence of sorority women who have done amazing things, please search #amazingsororitywomen .
© Fran Becque, www.fraternityhistory.com, 2016. All Rights Reserved. If you enjoyed this post, please sign up for updates. Also follow me on twitter @GLOHistory and Pinterest www.pinterest.com/glohistory.
