While it seems like every month — or every day, sometimes — is set aside to honor a group of people or a favorite food or cause, March is one of the most important observances on the calendar as it relates to women because March is set aside as Women’s History Month.
The simple truth is, there’s only been one person on the planet that wasn’t born from a woman’s womb, and he was Adam. Even Jesus, the son of God, was birthed by Mary. Therefore, none of us would be here at all if it weren’t for women.
Women are more than just a means to bring children to the earth, however. Women are often the glue that holds families and businesses together; they are a guiding force, even if they aren’t mothers. They are sisters, aunts, cousins, wives, friends, co-workers, bosses, you name it, and they have earned the right to have a month in their honor.
While in Sampson County, we have relatively few female leaders, there are those who have led the way for what was once known as the weaker sex. Two mayors — Alice Butler of Roseboro and Kim Johnson of Harrells — are showing that women can lead a municipality just as well as any man. We currently have one female county commissioner, Lethia Lee, and two female chairs of local education boards — Dr. Linda Brunson, Clinton City Board of Education, and Larinda Haight, Sampson Community College Board of Trustees. At the end of the day today, we will have our first female Sampson County Clerk of Court, as the only two individuals seeking the office are women — Tammy Grady and Cashie Phillips Lee.
We’re proud to point out that Donna Bullard is one of the few female CEOs of a local business, carrying that torch at Star Communications, and Sue Lee made history when she became Sampson County’s first-ever female chair of the Board of Commissioners a few years back.
Even here at The Sampson Independent, longtime publisher Sherry Matthews and editor Abby Cavenaugh lead a staff of male reporters and a male sports editor. In fact, the local newspaper has had females in its top positions for decades now, dating back to when Matthews was editor and two other females held the publisher title, Debby Chiarella and Sandy Hurley, respectively.
While locally we’ve come a long way in the last few decades, there is certainly more that needs to be done when it comes to positions women should hold in our society. We hope those females who are now leaders across our community will inspire other women to pursue any leadership role they desire.
And since it is Primary Election Day, let us not forget that women have only had the right to vote for a little over 100 years, with the 19th Amendment ratified in 1920. You can do the math. America is celebrating its 250th anniversary this year, so women did not have a voice in elections for nearly the first half of the existence of our nation. As the old cigarette ads used to say, “We’ve come a long way, baby.”
In many ways, we have, but in others, not so much. Women make up 50.1 percent of the population of the county, ever so slightly outnumbering men, yet we expect men to be our leaders, and time and time again, we elect men to the highest offices, never acknowledging, it seems, the role we can actually play in the decision-making process. We would love to see it if more women ran for elected office, stepped in to leadership roles and showed younger generations that the future is female.
After all, the theme for Women’s History Month 2026 is “Leading the Change: Women Shaping a Sustainable Future.” If there’s anyone who can shape the future in a positive way, it is women.
We look forward to seeing what the girls of Sampson County will grow into, and we applaud and encourage them every step of the way. We look forward to reporting their accomplishments and honoring our girls and women, now and for all the years to come.