Radford University Women's and Gender Studies

07/28/2026

07/02/2026

While men dumped tea into the Boston harbor, Penelope Barker found her own way to rebel, and instigated one of the first recorded women’s political demonstrations in America.

After being widowed twice in her mid-twenties, Barker inherited enough wealth to become one of the richest women in North Carolina. While her third husband spent nearly two decades in England, Barker developed the financial expertise and community standing that would help her make an impact for independence.

In October 1774, Barker gathered fifty women, likely in the home of Elizabeth King, where they signed a resolution committing to boycott British imports, including tea, in support of the Patriot cause. The Edenton Tea Party was one of the first recorded women’s political demonstrations in America, and paved the way for record-breaking, women-led assemblies like the early 20th-century Suffrage Parades and the 2017 Women's March.

Most of the women who signed the resolution did not hold financial power, but they were accustomed to controlling every day decisions, from what to buy and to what to serve. By boycotting tea, a staple of Colonial life, they used their skillsets to make a political statement.

Learn more in our newly-updated biography: https://ow.ly/RTG050ZiTSV

07/02/2026

Weekend Reading on Women’s Representation is a weekly compilation of stories about women’s representation in politics, on boards, in sports and entertainment, in judicial offices and in the private sector in the U.S. and around the world—with a little gardening and goodwill mixed in for refres...