“Associated Women Sycophants”: Sorority Women and Changing Gender Roles at the University of Kansas, 1948-1973

Abstract

This thesis aims to study the different social expectations of University of Kansas sorority women and the evolution of those social mores over time. Very little study on this topic has been done previously. Beth Bailey’s Sex in the Heartland is one of the few works that discusses the Associated Women Students in relation to the sexual revolution at KU but does not include extensive discussion of sorority women’s roles. From its founding in 1948 until its reinvention in 1970, the Associated Women Students (AWS) was the authority for University of Kansas (KU) women regarding all regulations and social events that placed desirability and emphasis a more socially conservative college woman. Integral to these operations were KU sorority women, who were significantly involved within the AWS and strong believers in social conservatism. Sororities utilized the infrastructure of the AWS to provide consistent and effective resistance to changes in gender roles and sexual mores for women. Historically, the years 1948-1975 at the University of Kansas are significant because it shows a regional version of change that reflects national trends.