History of N.C. Federation of Women's Clubs by Sallie Southall Cotten, 1925

History of the North Carolina Federation of Women’s Clubs 1901-1925 by Sallie Southall Cotten is available online at Documenting the American South, docsouth.unc.edu/nc/cottenss/cottenss.html. From the first chapter, The Awakening of Womanhood:

What has been known as the Woman's Movement, was a revolution--bloodless but not purposeless. A new era in world history was imminent but not yet visible. A psychic Call from the Infinite stirred the soul of womanhood, and unconsciously woman responded to the call without analyzing or understanding it. It was a call for emergence from selfish individuality into broader service to the world. It was not confined to any one country or people. While Susan B. Anthony in the United States was struggling with prejudice in her demands for justice to women, Olive Schreiner in South Africa was writing and clamoring for the emancipation of women from the trammels of the past.

Everywhere woman while absorbed by the duties of motherhood and home-making, felt, without understanding, the inner stirrings of undeveloped powers, but was afraid of the uncharted seas of effort which began to be visible to her. The psychic call had come to earth in ages past but woman could not respond because she was not educated, nor prepared for new duties, but this time a more educated womanhood felt the call and answered as best it could. In the past, education had not been considered essential to feminine virtues and very slowly has woman attained to a higher education. It is an interesting fact that woman's activities beyond her own home began with an effort for more knowledge, more culture, and a demand for universal education. From the Garden of Eden to the present day the Tree of Knowledge has allured her, and her persistent application of her knowledge to the betterment of human life has contributed much to the onward march of civilization.