Navigating Whiteness: Race, Class, and Social Dynamics in Predominantly White Sororities

In the social landscape of college campuses, Greek life - particularly sororities - has long been a place where identity, inclusion, and exclusion alike intersect. Historically white sororities (HWGs) often mirror broader societal hierarchies, shaping experiences of race, class, and gender within their ranks (Parks, 2010). For women of color and women from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, participation in sororities and navigating these spaces involves both community and complexity. Research indicates that as higher education institutions strive for diversity, equity, and inclusion, it becomes increasingly necessary to explore how marginalized individuals navigate these historically exclusive organizations (Jones, 2022; Ojed & Dizon, 2022). By using autoethnography to examine the lived experiences of minority sorority members, placed in the context of peer-reviewed literature, this paper reveals that social integration is often conditional, coded, and complicated by systemic inequities embedded in the Greek system (Matias, 2019; Parks, 2010)