History
The Founding
Helen M. Dodge, Frances E. Haven, E. Adeline Curtis, and Mary A. Bingham founded Gamma Phi Beta on November 11, 1874, in Syracuse, New York. They were imaginative, courageous risk takers who cooperated unselfishly as they worked to achieve the same ideals Gamma Phi Beta emphasizes today. Today, Gamma Phi Beta is an international sorority with more than 128 collegiate chapters in the United States and Canada and nearly 200,000 collegiate members world wide. Our international headquarters is located in Englewood, Colorado and is owned by the Gamma Phi Beta Sorority.
Colleges and universities admitted few women students in the 1870s. In fact, administrators and faculty members gave women a rather reluctant welcome. They argued women had inferior minds and could not master mathematics and the classics. In this controversy, Dr. E. O. Haven, Syracuse University chancellor and former president of the University of Michigan, and Northwestern University, maintained that women should receive the advantages of higher education. He enrolled his daughter, Frances, at Syracuse, which in 1874 had approximately 200 students and 10 faculty members.
When young women were finally admitted to what had previously been all-male colleges, they too wanted "something of their own." Consequently, after the Civil War several women's fraternities appeared within a few months of each other. I.C. Sorosis (coined from the Latin word soror meaning "sister") was patterned after the men's groups and was established at Monmouth College in Illinois on April 28, 1867. It later took the name Pi Beta Phi, after the initials of its secret motto. Kappa Kappa Gamma followed I.C. Sorosis at Monmouth in March 1870, but Kappa Alpha Theta was founded as the first Greek-letter woman's fraternity on January 27, 1870, at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana. At about the same time, and without any prior knowledge of the existence of the others, Alpha Phi was founded at Syracuse University in new York in September 1872, and Delta Gamma was founded at Lewis School in Mississippi in December 1873. All of these groups were incorporated as "women's fraternities," because at that time the word "sorority" did not exist. This term was created for Gamma Phi Beta in 1874 because their advisor, a professor of Latin at Syracuse University, thought the term "fraternity" ill-advised for a group of young ladies.
Frances asked three friends to assist her in organizing a society. They sought the advice and help of Dr., Haven, their brothers, the faculty and members of two existing fraternities. The minutes of their first meeting on November 11, 1874 state: "Miss Dodge was appointed to draft a Constitution." Frances Haven and Helen Dodge agreed to ask Dr. Haven for a suitable name and motto. The Founders met again on November 16 for further decisions as recorded in the minutes: "The merits of the six mottoes suggested by Chancellor Haven were discussed, and the motto of Gamma Phi Beta unanimously accepted." They agreed on a badge design for which they had sought the help of Charles M. Cobb and Charles M. Moss, Frances' future husband. Helen's brother, a divinity student, suggested the Hebrew word. The jeweler delivered the first badges on December 16, 1874. After the installation of Beta chapter at the University of Michigan in 1882, Syracuse faculty member Dr. Frank Smalley coined the word sorority especially for Gamma Phi beta. It has been used ever since.