- On November 11, 1874, four women at Syracuse University came together to form a women's society. The ladies named their organization Gamma Phi Beta. Helen M. Dodge, Frances E. Haven, E. Adeline Curtis, and Mary A. Bingham were courageous risk takers who sought to create a society for women in a man's world. Though at the time women's societies were given the same name as their male counterparts (fraternities), Dr. Frank Smalley coined the word "sorority" for Gamma Phi Beta. Over 130 years later, we still cherish the same ideals that our founders worked to achieve: love, labor, learning, and loyalty. Today, Gamma Phi Beta is an international sorority with more than 168 chartered collegiate chapters in the United States and Canada and nearly 200,000 collegiate members worldwide. We celebrate the vision and dedication of our founders and all the women that have come since then who have built Gamma Phi Beta into one of the largest and most well-respected sororities in the world.