Founded in 1870 at Indiana Asbury (now DePauw University) in Greencastle, Ind., Kappa Alpha Theta is the first Greek-letter Fraternity known among women. In creating Kappa Alpha Theta, our founders were leading the way for women’s groups and for women in higher education. Our members are women of all ages: women who attended college in nearly every US state and Canadian province, women who live all over the world, and women with varied professions, faiths, and ethnic backgrounds.
What We Do
Kappa Alpha Theta is known as a leading women’s group; our ideas and programs have often been on the cutting edge. "Leader" is not a title conferred or an office held; as individuals and as chapters, Thetas are known for leading in our communities and on our campuses.
The first women admitted to Phi Beta Kappa were Thetas.
The first women's fraternity to establish a chapter in Canada was Kappa Alpha Theta.
Nancy Kassebaum, Kappa/Kansas, was the first woman to chair a major United States Senate committee, the Committee on Labor and Human Resources.
Adelaide MacDonald Sinclair, Sigma/Toronto, was the first Canadian delegate to the United Nations.
Julia Morgan, Omega/UC Berkeley, was the first woman to study architecture at and graduate from the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris, then the premier school of architecture in the world, as well as the first woman licensed as an architect in California.
Marie-Claire Kirkland Strover, Beta Psi/McGill, was the first woman elected to the National Assembly of Quebec, the first woman appointed a cabinet minister in Quebec, the first woman appointed acting premier, and the first female judge to serve in the Quebec Provincial Court.
Dian Fossey, Gamma Xi/San Jose State, was the world’s first female primatologist.
Theta was the first women's Greek organization established at four Ivy League universities (Cornell, Princeton, Yale, and Harvard), as well as at Michigan, Vanderbilt, Baylor, Stanford, and many other schools.
Theta Today
Theta has more than 130 college chapters at colleges and universities across the U.S. and Canada.
Membership in Kappa Alpha Theta leads women into a life of friends, experiences, and goals that they might not have had otherwise. Being a Theta leads a woman to personal excellence, offering her ways to become her best self. Our ritual, in fact, commands us to be nobler women, to lead ourselves to personal excellence and to lead others there as well. It commands us to set the bar high.
And when Thetas model personal excellence, we not only have the chance to lead on our campuses, in our communities, and in our professions, but we also have the chance to effect real change. Just as Bettie, Hannah, Alice, and Bettie did.