“Female Focused”: Avoiding the Sanctions as a Single Gender Social Organization

There's no debate about it—avoiding the sanctions is a delicate dance. By Michael Shao

Ever since Harvard imposed sanctions on “unrecognized single gender social organizations,” many groups have been scrambling to avoid the consequences and keep their membership stable with a healthy crop of sanction-scared freshmen.

Some groups have completely morphed from single gender to co-ed, such as Alpha Epsilon Pi’s shift to Aleph or Kappa Sigma’s change to KS. Others, however, have managed to slip out of reach of the sanctions while still maintaining a mostly single gender front. Kappa Kappa Gamma, now Fleur-de-Lis, bills itself as “female focused.” While it’s technically gender neutral, it’s not hard to guess about how many guys threw their hats in the ring this semester.

Flyby suggests a few other descriptions that could be used by groups who aren’t quite ready to give up their single gender status...because as long as you don’t technically limit membership based on gender, you’re good, right?

Brotherhood Bound

Sisterhood of the traveling pants? How about brotherhood of the barrel-chested sanction-battlers?

Bro-Based

This still sounds fratty enough that it might not get past admin, but it’s worth a try, right?

Matriarchally Managed

For the group that is straight up raising queens. Hey, if some guys want to come along and be knights, or, better yet, court jesters, we’ll take ‘em.

Masculine Minded

If “female focused” made it through, “masculine minded” might as well. The slogan could be “guiding guys since the sanctions’ rise.”