The Greek System: How Gender Inequality and Class Privilege Perpetuate Rape Culture

• Author: Jacquelyn D. Wiersma‐Mosley,Kristen N. Jozkowski
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12229
• Published date: 01 February 2017
• Date: 01 February 2017

K N. J University of Arkansas and The Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex,

Gender, and Reproduction

J D. W-M University of Arkansas

The Greek System: How Gender Inequality and

Class Privilege Perpetuate Rape Culture

Sexual assault on college campuses is a per-

vasive public health issue. It is important to

examine factors particular to universities that

inuence occurrences of sexual assault and peo-

ple’s perceptions of sexual assault. Using a lens

of socialist feminism, we argue that institutional

and sociocultural factors related to gender and

class privilege on college campuses are due to

patterns of power and control in university sys-

tems that contribute to the occurrence and facil-

itation of sexual assault. Our synthesis of the

literature focuses on the male-dominated party

culture of the primarily White Greek system in

American universities, which is reinforced by

the university as an institution. We discuss how

patterns of power and control dictate and inu-

ence contemporary campus norms in relation to

gender and class, which then perpetuate sexual

assault. We provide recommendations for poli-

cies and procedures regarding class and gender

inequities in the scope of sexual violence on col-

lege campuses.

Approximately one in ve women experiences

sexual assault while in college (e.g., Fisher,

Cullen, & Turner, 2000; Krebs, Lindquist,

Department of Health, Human Performance and Recre-

ation, University of Arkansas, and The Kinsey Institute for

Research in Sex, Gender, & Reproduction, Indiana Univer-

sity (kjozkows@uark.edu).

KeyWords: College students, fraternity,Greek life, privilege,

rape culture, sexual assault.

Warner, Fisher, & Martin, 2007). Research

indicates that sexual victimization occurs at

increased rates during fraternity parties (Gross-

bard, Geisner, Neighbors, Kilmer, & Larimer,

2007; McMahon, 2010) and after fraternity-

sponsored functions in fraternity houses

(Mohler-Kou, Dowdall, Koss, & Wechsler,

2004; Murnen & Kohlman, 2007). Minow and

Einolf (2009) found that more than one-third

of rapes reported on college campuses took

place in a fraternity house. As compared to

men who are not in fraternities, men who are

in fraternities are also more likely to engage

in sexually aggressive behaviors (Loh, Gidycz,

Lobo, & Luthra, 2005; Murnen & Kohlman,

2007) and to endorse rape-supportive beliefs

and attitudes (Boeringer, 1999; Boeringer,

Shehan, & Akers, 1991; Canan, Jozkowski, &

Crawford, 2016; Humphreys & Kahn, 2000).

These ndings suggest that fraternity subculture

may be conducive to sexual violence against

women and that specic venues such as par-

ties and events hosted by fraternities represent

spaces of high risk for the perpetration of sexual

assault. We argue that fraternity culture, marked

by “hooking up, sexual competition among

brothers, and collective disrespect for women[,]

make[s] fraternity rape a virtual inevitability”

(Boyle, 2015, p. 386). In this article we focus on

primarily White fraternities, which substantially

outnumber historically Black fraternities in

the United States. Notably, too, the available

research documenting sexual violence within

the Greek subculture in the United States tends

Family Relations 66 (February 2017): 89–103 89

DOI:10.1111/fare.12229