Phi Sigma Sigma’s was founded at Hunter College on November 26, 1913. Its ten founders are Lillian Gordon Alpern, Josephine Ellison Breakstone, Fay Chertkoff, Estelle Melnick Cole, Jeanette Lipka Furst, Ethel Gordon Kraus, Shirley Cohen Laufer, Claire Wunder McArdle, Rose Sher Seidman and Gwen Zaliels Snyder.
The organization was originally called Phi Sigma Omega, but it was discovered that the name was already in use. Five years transpired before a second chapter was installed. In 1918, the Beta Chapter at Tufts University was chartered. It came about because a friend of one of the founders expressed interest in the organization. A third chapter was founded at New York University.
Phi Sigma Sigma’s Theta Chapter was chartered in 1923 at the University of Illinois. It has among its alumnae Irna Phillips, considered the “mother of modern soap opera” and Tatyana McFadden, Paralympic Gold Medalist. Among the soap operas Phillips created are Guiding Light, As the World Turns, Days of Our Lives and Another World.
