Clubwomen played an important role in shaping North Carolina life during the 20th century. Their influence extended to the ballot box, the workplace, public health, library development, the arts, conservation and literacy.
Though she was first woman postmaster in the United States after the adoption of the Constitution, Sarah Decrow was born and died in near obscurity.
Perhaps North Carolina’s best known woman suffrage leader, Gertrude Weil came from a long line of social, religious and political activists.
Restoring North Carolina’s eighteenth-century capitol, “Tryon’s Palace,” was a daunting prospect in 1929 to all but a small network of visionary ladies, each with ties to the state’s cultural and historic societies.
Lillian Exum Clement, called Brother Exum by her fellow legislators, was the first woman in the South to hold legislative office, taking her seat in the North Carolina House of Representatives in 1921.