Ideology of True Womanhood: Campus Example

In a conversation I was having with a Colgate student in a fraternity yesterday, we were talking about how a new chapter of his fraternity starts at a school.  He first explained to me the standard procedures that are required, but he then began explaining how each new chapter of his fraternity is sent female advisors to teach the boys the moral codes of their organization.   At this point in the conversation, I had to stop my friend to ask why female advisors were sent over males.  He thought about the question for a minute, but then just shrugged his shoulders and said that it’s just the way it is. When I began to remember a class discussion we had the other day, I began finding his comment and the whole notion of having female advisors for a fraternity a little off putting. 

In class, we talked a lot about the role of men in the public sphere and the role of women in the private sphere in the context of the “ideology of true womanhood”.  According to this ideology, men and women are both equal, yet very different, and thus should be relegated to separate spheres.  The women, who are regarded as morally superior and nurturing, are relegated to the private sphere to teach good values within the home.  The men, on the other hand, are morally deprived and should therefore venture out into the public sphere to obtain monetary value.  Going back to the topic of female advisors, it would seem as if the fraternity not only believes in this ideology, but also puts it into effect quite obviously.  Women, who have no real ties to the fraternity, are sent into the privacy of the fraternity’s new chapter house to literally teach moral codes.  Unlike a family home where the woman lives there and passes down good values through a natural progression, the sole purpose of having a female advisor in a fraternity is to pass down good values in set period of time before moving on to be an advisor of another house.  Although this is just one little example, I think it’s interesting to think about these microscopic events taking place on college campuses nationwide that eventually add up to a macroscopic system.