Early histories of sororities contain accounts of
rushing and
pledging agreements or compacts among sororities on various campuses, and many stories of cooperation and mutual assistance. However, no actual Panhellenic organization existed and no uniform practices were observed. The NPC's origin can be traced to 1891, when
Kappa Kappa Gamma invited all seven existing sororities to a
Boston meeting, with the intention to meet again in 1893. In 1902,
Alpha Phi invited
Pi Beta Phi,
Kappa Alpha Theta, Kappa Kappa Gamma,
Delta Gamma,
Gamma Phi Beta,
Delta Delta Delta,
Alpha Chi Omega, and
Chi Omega to a conference in
Chicago on May 24 to set standards for collegiate sororities. Alpha Chi Omega and Chi Omega were unable to attend and joined the following year. The remaining seven groups met and the session resulted in the organization of the
Inter-Sorority Conference, the first interfraternity association and the first intergroup organization on college campuses. In 1917, it changed back to the National Panhellenic Conference, only to return to the National Panhellenic Congress name in 1921. That year, the congress also began plans for a centralized headquarters to coordinate and streamline interactions with the separate sororities. The
Association of Education Sororities (AES) merged with NPC in 1947. At the time of its merger with NPC, AES included six member organizations. By the end of the 1960s and the
civil rights movement, NPC sororities eliminated official policies that prevented minority members from joining,
21st century As of the 2010s, sorority members and outside observers noticed a shift in sorority culture; though sororities began as
feminist organizations, emphasis during the mid-1900s on social reputations and exclusionary recruitment policies (such as a refusal to recruit Jewish and
African-American women) led to a reputation for following
cultural hegemony and being made up of upper-class
white women. Though such issues continue to persist in various ways, sorority and anti-sorority women alike observed sororities becoming more ethnically diverse and moving away from traditional power structures towards their feminist roots. In 2016, collegiate members began discussing membership offers for
transgender women, which was supported by some national organizations with changes to their national policies; however, some national organizations delayed membership offers for trans women due to fears about
Title IX exemption status, which caused dissent in local chapters. Though the NPC created a
gender identity study group to examine potential legal consequences, they concluded that the legal precedents were "incomplete, inconclusive, and inconsistent," and did not enact official policy or recommendations. By 2021, most national organizations had released political statements on
racial and social equity and inclusion, while also developing membership policies regarding gender identity.
Delta Phi Epsilon developed a policy explicitly open to
trans and
non-binary individuals, and sororities open to anyone who identifies as a woman include:
Alpha Chi Omega,
Alpha Delta Pi,
Alpha Epsilon Phi,
Alpha Sigma Tau,
Chi Omega,
Delta Gamma,
Gamma Phi Beta,
Kappa Alpha Theta,
Kappa Delta,
Kappa Kappa Gamma,
Phi Sigma Sigma,
Sigma Sigma Sigma, and
Theta Phi Alpha. Sororities open to anyone who identifies and lives as a woman include:
Alpha Gamma Delta,
Alpha Omicron Pi,
Alpha Xi Delta,
Delta Delta Delta,
Pi Beta Phi,
Sigma Delta Tau, and
Sigma Kappa, while
Zeta Tau Alpha specifies that the individual must consistently identify and live as a woman. == Symbols ==