This curriculum resource was developed by the South Carolina Department of Archives and History as part of a series of eight Document Packets to enhance the teaching of South Carolina history by making copies of significant documents available for classroom use. This resource, revised in 1997, presents four women pioneers of different ethnic background – Judith Lawson, an African American; Mary Musgrove Matthews Bosomworth of Creek and European descent; and Mary Gloud and Elizabeth Haig, both Europeans.

Lucile “Miss Ludy” Godbold (1900-1981) of Estill, South Carolina was one of America’s first female Olympic champions and a pioneer of American women’s competitive athletics. A star athlete at Winthrop College, Godbold earned a spot on the United States track and field team in the First International Track Meet for Women at the women’s Olympic Games in Paris in 1922. Godbold broke the world record in the eight-pound shot put and secured two gold medals and second, third, and fourth place in other events. With Godbold on the team, the U.S. team place second in the Games.

South Carolina Women was a quarterly newsletter of the South Carolina Commission on Women. The Governor’s Commission on Women was established in 1971 by Governor John West to promote equal opportunity and improve the status of women I the state by identifying problems and recommending ways to eliminate discriminatory practices.

Mary McLeod Bethune (1875-1955) was born in Mayesville, South Carolina, the daughter and sister of formerly enslaved people. After discovering an interest in education, she attended Scotia Seminary in Concord, North Carolina before studying to be a missionary at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. She taught in South Carolina and Georgia before going to Florida and establishing the Daytona Literacy and Industrial Training School for Negro Girls in 1904; today, her school has transformed into Bethune-Cookman University.

The South Carolina Women of Achievement Awards was presented during Women’s History Month by the Governor’s Office Commission on Women, in celebration of women’s outstanding contributions to home, community, and state. The awards also served to identify women who served as role models for other women in the Palmetto state and to provide information to the lives of outstanding South Carolina women so that women’s history “in process” might be recorded.

This publication gives a timeline of women in South Carolina from 1540, when the Queen of Cofitachiqui entertained Spanish conquistador Hernando DeSoto on the Wateree River, until 1995 when the timeline was published. Each page is full of familiar and less familiar names and achievements of South Carolina women and how they impacted the Palmetto State.

This federal document highlights the growth of women’s employment in the United States and the increasing presence of women in the workforce during the 1970s. It emphasizes the federal government’s role in setting an example by encouraging the employment of women and increasing their representation in government positions. The document also notes President Carter's efforts in appointing more women to senior government roles.

Covering the years 1940-1985, this study explores two main periods—World War II and the postwar era-in the story of American women in aviation. It is a history of the female pilots, engineers, aircraft industry personnel, and flight attendants who met the challenges of the aviation world, and who had to overcome particular barriers because they were women. Their contributions and achievements in times of war and peace are illustrated by photographs, documents and newspaper accounts of the day, and by personal memoirs.

This history follows and examines both the expanding opportunities for women in the Marine Corps and the fading cultural gender distinctions in the last quarter of the twentieth century. The work is derived from official documents and personal files, interviews, conversations, letters, newspaper articles, Internet access to research archives, and hundreds of email submissions from current and former Marines. The generation of women described in this history proved themselves in every clime and place, including in command and in combat.