Becoming a Sister: The Socialization of Women into a Sorority

• Main Author: Hughes, Kathleen
• Format: Others
• Published: TopSCHOLAR® 2003
• Subjects: Gender and Sexuality; Psychology
• Online Access: http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/theses/600; http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1603&context=theses

Adult peer groups have become more and more a topic for sociological study. It is a phenomenon that is starting to gain interest. This research focuses on one sorority on the campus of a Midwestern university and how this sorority manages to incorporate the women that they pledge through formal recruitment into the sorority and how these women fully socialize themselves into this group of women who already have bonded with each other. A synthesis of symbolic interactionism and social exchange theory helps to break down the socialization process and shows how the new members move through the stages of sorority membership. By the time this research ended at the sorority formal, the new members were fully incorporated into the sorority through a variety of events including meetings, recruitment, sisterhood activities, social activities, and the ritual aspects of the sorority.