P.E.O. Sisterhood

The P.E.O. Sisterhood is an international women's organization of about 250,000 members with a primary focus on providing educational opportunities for female students worldwide. The Sisterhood is organized with chapters throughout the United States and Canada, headquartered in Des Moines, Iowa. Barbara Andes is the president.

History

The Sisterhood was founded January 21, 1869, as a seven-member sorority at Iowa Wesleyan College in Mount Pleasant, Iowa. It is the second sorority to be founded in the U.S. The founding members were Mary Allen [Stafford] (1848-1927), Ella Stewart (1848-94), Alice Bird [Babb] (1850-1926), Hattie Briggs [Bousquet] (1849-77), Franc Roads [Elliott] (1852-1924), Alice Virginia Coffin (1848-88), and Suela Pearson [Penfield] (1851-1920).

The first non-U.S. chapter was established in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada in 1911.

Main projects

• Cottey College (est. 1884) is a junior women's college of 350 students in Nevada, Missouri.
• The Educational Loan Fund (est. 1907) makes loans available to qualified American and Canadian women with financial need.
• The International Peace Scholarship Fund (est. 1949) provides scholarships for international women to pursue graduate study in the U.S. and Canada.
• The Program for Continuing Education (est. 1973) provides need-based grants to women in the U.S. and Canada whose education has been interrupted and need to return to school to support themselves and/or their families through continuing education programs.
• Scholar Awards (est. 1991) are merit-based awards to U.S. and Canadian women who are pursuing a graduate degree or are engaged in graduate research at an accredited institution.

The Sisterhood also established in the 1960s a number of retirement homes for its members in various U.S. states, some of which still operate.

Name

The meaning of "P.E.O." in the organization's name has been, and may continue to be, an official secret.

Until 2008, the Sisterhood did not publish the meaning of this acronym, though several independent published sources indicated that it stood for "Protect Each Other". In 2008, the Sisterhood revised its website to indicate that "P.E.O." stands for "philanthropic educational organization".

Because of the secrecy around its name and rituals, the P.E.O. Sisterhood may be considered a secret society. In 2005, the Sisterhood unveiled a new logo and an “It’s OK to Talk About P.E.O.” campaign, seeking to raise the public profile of the organization while maintaining its traditions of secrecy.

References

External links

• P.E.O. Sisterhood
• P.E.O. Projects