P.E.O. Sisterhood

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The P.E.O. Sisterhood is a women's organization with chapters throughout the United States and Canada, headquartered in Des Moines, Iowa. Ann H. Fields is the president.

The Sisterhood was founded January 21, 1869 as a seven-member sorority at Iowa Wesleyan College in Mount Pleasant, Iowa. The founding members were Mary Allen [Stafford] (1848-1927), Ella Stewart (1848-1894), Alice Bird [Babb] (1850-1926), Hattie Briggs [Bousquet] (1849-1877), Franc Roads [Elliott] (1852-1924), Alice Virginia Coffin (1848-1888), and Suela Pearson [Penfield] (1851-1920). It has grown into an international organization of about 250,000 members with a primary focus on providing educational opportunities for female students world wide.

Contents

1 Main projects
2 Name
3 References
4 External links

Main projects

Cottey College (est. 1927) 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, terminal degree Master's, 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.[link]

Name

The meaning of "P.E.O." in the organization's name is an official secret.[link] No explanation is given on the group's website or in its published materials.

Some members of the Sisterhood have suggested publicly that "P.E.O." stands for "Philanthropic Educational Organization."[link] This explanation for the acronym has been used by many mainstream news outlets and organizations, including other colleges and universities not affiliated with the groups.[][link][link]

Multiple published sources, however, state that "P.E.O." stands for "Protect Each Other". Other sources reporting this meaning are not as definitive, saying that the origin of the name is uncertain.[link]

Because of the secrecy around its name and rituals, the PEO Sisterhood may be considered a secret society. In 2005, the Sisterhood unveiled a new logo and a “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.[link]

References

External links

[P.E.O. Sisterhood]
[P.E.O. Projects]
[Talking P.E.O.: How does an organization introduce a new identity to the public? By first reassuring itself that “It’s OK” to change.] (article by Sheree Clark in Feb./Mar. 2006 issue of Dyanmic Graphics magazine)

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