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The History of Kappa Kappa Gamma
(KKG):
In 1870, there were no sororities. There were many fraternities, but
there were no organisations that offered the same type of support and
sense of community for women, and women on campus were few in number.
In the fall of 1870, 6 women at Monmouth College in Illinois decided to
form a women’s fraternity, to unite women in college and to create a
support system for women at college. Mary Louise Bennett, Hannah
Jeannette Boyd, Martha Louisa Stevenson, Mary Moore Stewart, Susan
Burley Walker, and Anne Elizabeth Willits marched into their college
chapel on October 13th, 1870, wearing golden keys in their hair, and
declared that they were members of Kappa Kappa Gamma, a women’s
fraternity. (The word sorority was coined later on, at the time of
Kappa’s formation, it did not exist.)
Soon other campuses began forming women’s fraternities as well, and many
associated themselves with
KKG,
and became chapters. Today, there are over 130 active chapters of
KKG.
Four of these are in Canada - University of Waterloo, McGill University,
University of Toronto, and University of British Columbia. In addition,
there are over 330 alumni associations worldwide.
Zeta Omega Chapter was not always a part of Kappa Kappa Gamma. In the
Fall of 1986, a group of women began forming a sorority, in response to
the formation of a local fraternity on campus, Delta Omega Chi (later to
become Sigma Chi). They ran ads in the student newspaper, The Imprint,
and held some meetings. November 1986, they held their first initiation,
with 7 members. They called their sorority Kappa Gamma Phi, standing for
Knowledge, Growth and Friendship.
At UW, they found that Kappa Gamma Phi (KGF)
offered something that many other clubs did not. It was not geared to
any one interest; it was open to all women. It brought women together
because they were women, regardless of their political/religious/racial
background.
There were many struggles for
KGF.
Keeping numbers in the sorority, promoting
KGF
on a campus where Greek life was virtually unknown, dealing with the
co-op stream, and not being recognised by the university. They
persevered, and survived, to our benefit today. To have a presence on
campus,
KGF
along with the other Greek-letter organizations on campus formed a club
called the Fraternity and Sorority Awareness Council (today called
Fraternity and Sorority Awareness). This allowed them to have a booth at
Clubs Days and to book rooms in the Campus Centre (now the SLC) to hold meetings.
Another challenge they faced was overcoming the stereotype of the
typical American sorority. In Canada, the Greek-letter organizations are
not the same as they are in America. There isn’t the same history here,
and the organizations are not as large as our American counterparts.
There is also the common stereotype of sorority girls being only
interested in partying and frat boys.
KGF
members found that when people got to know them, they were often
surprised to find out that they did not fit the stereotype.
Around 1990,
KGF
decided to try to join a national sorority. They were looking for one
that held the same ideals, and that wouldn’t cause them to lose their
uniqueness. Finding and contacting the nationals was a lot of work, and
was actually an appointed position. There were many rejection letters
received, but they persisted. In the summer of 1993, they were visited
by representatives from
KKG,
and were colonised as a chapter of
KKG
in the Fall of 1993. On January 10th, 1994, actives of
KGF
and some of the alumna were initiated into Kappa Kappa Gamma.
Zeta Omega Chapter celebrates Founder’s Day on October 13th every year to celebrate the
formation of
KKG.
We also celebrate the anniversary of our entrance into
KKG on January 10th of every year.
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