When Parallel Paths Cross: Competition and the Elimination of Sex Segregation in the Education Fraternities, 1969–1974

In the late 1960s, the all-male Phi Delta Kappa and the parallel all-female organization, Pi Lambda Theta, faced local and national pressures to abandon their single-sex status and become coeducational. Demands for the sex integration of both fraternities from university students, from educational and women's associations, and from universities responding to governmental censures to eliminate sex discrimination forced Pi Lambda Theta (PLT) and Phi Delta Kappa (PDK) to examine the purpose and organization of single-sex associations in American professional and collegiate life. For Phi Delta Kappa and, in particular, Pi Lambda Theta, the advent of coeducational membership led to direct competition between the formerly cooperative men's and women's groups. Thus, the elimination of sex segregation in the education fraternities ended approximately fifty years of cooperation and an alliance that promoted the professional distinctions between all educators and those in the separate but parallel Phi Delta Kappa and Pi Lambda Theta.