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Historians have taken more interest in women’s lives during the past twenty-five years than ever before. This interest has resulted in extensive research on the important roles that women have played in the past. Today, women’s history resources are available from almost every bookstore, college campus, museum, and historical society. The Internet has also made much of this material more accessible to historians, students, teachers, and researchers. Traditional history has largely ignored women because their lives have focused on home and family, subjects that historians have not considered to be important. Newer interpretations of history focus more on the contributions of women—contributions that are often very different from those made by men, but still integral to understanding our past. This new focus provides us with a view of history that is more inclusive. Noted Duke University historian Anne Firor Scott has commented that women’s history changes the definition of achievement. Women have always had a different world view. When people view women’s history, the pace changes. Many of the activities with which women were involved—maintaining households, raising families, educating children, caring for the sick and elderly—are long-term and gradual rather than dramatic. When we learn about women’s history, we learn of a history that is as familiar to us as our own lives. Women’s history reflects a broad diversity among women but also includes issues and activities that cross national and cultural lines. For more than four hundred years, North Carolina women have been making history, each woman in her own way. Adapting to change while preserving traditions is an important theme. Women have made up the majority of North Carolina’s population since the 1830s. They have borne the brunt of trying to hold home and family together in the midst of ever-changing circumstances—from the early settlement period to an antebellum world that dictated specific roles for black and white women, to a shift from farm to mill and town. North Carolina’s past is rich with stories of women who have worked hard for a better world outside the home. For instance, idealistic women like Gertrude Weil of Goldsboro worked long and hard for women’s suffrage, civil rights, and peace. And women like Mary Hilliard Hinton opposed women’s suffrage just as strongly. This workshop reflects on the many achievements of women throughout North Carolina’s history and provides resources for bringing this information into your classroom. ||
 * //__ Why Study Women’s History?  __//** --by Margaret Supplee Smith and Emily Herring Wilson
 * [[image:http://ncmuseumofhistory.org/workshops/womenshistory/sign.JPG width="320" height="439" link="http://ncmuseumofhistory.org/workshops/womenshistory/sign.JPG"]] //This prosuffrage poster from the North Carolina Museum of History's collection, attempted to remind men who already had the vote where they came from. // || Over time, a gradual shift in priorities has taken place as more women have asserted an increasing presence in the public world of work and community. They balance private family responsibilities with the pressures and opportunities of workplace and society.