In the 1950s several leading members of Delta Phi Epsilon Professional Foreign Service Fraternity began urging that the Fraternity admit women. They, in effect, proposed changing the organization from a fraternity into a society. There was, however, considerable resistance towards the proposal.

As a compromise, the Fraternity's National Board of Governors in 1956, under the leadership of then National General Secretary Bro. Gregory Creutz, Al-'21, created the Delta Phi Epsilon International Society of Business and Foreign Affairs.

This new Society's membership would automatically include all the members of Delta Phi Epsilon Fraternity, but would also be open those men and women interested only in belonging to a society.

This Delta Phi Epsilon International Society of Business and Foreign Affairs, however, was never a success. The few women members it initiated could not develop the strong bonds across generations that the Fraternity's brothers had always enjoyed.

In the late 1960s, therefore, proposals were once again made to re-constitute the Fraternity as co-ed. At first, these efforts were restricted to efforts by the Fraternity's Eta Chapter at The George Washington University, Xi Chapter at Texas Tech University, and Pi Chapter at The American University, all three of which helped form local foreign service sororities, intending to cooperate closely, and ultimately merge, with them.

In June 1972, the National Convention of Delta Phi Epsilon Fraternity, at its meeting in San Francisco, CA, tentatively voted to re-constitute the Fraternity into a co-ed Society. The idea never became a reality, though, because the Fraternity's Alpha Chapter came up with a better idea.

In October 1972, at the suggestion of Alpha Chapter, the Fraternity's leaders helped create the national Delta Phi Epsilon Professional Foreign Service Sorority. Intended to be parallel to the Fraternity, this sorority could work closely together with the fraternity.

Ever since 1972, therefore, all the brothers of Delta Phi Epsilon Professional Foreign Service Fraternity, Inc., and all the sisters of Delta Phi Epsilon Professional Foreign Service Sorority, have together comprised the membership of the on-going Delta Phi Epsilon International Society of Business and Foreign Affairs.
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