Conclusion

State's Mates members rehearse the Can-Can for the 1961 variety show.

The conclusion synthesizes the material in the previous sections of the exhibit, to examine the ways that State's Mates responded to changes in their cultural context.

The decline of the Mrs. NC State pageant is emblematic of the decline of State's Mates as a whole.  By the late years of the pageant, Mrs. NC State was the only way left that State's Mates could engage with the rest of the North Carolina State University Community.  Was this solely due to demographic changes, however, or did it also reflect a change in the attitudes of the University?

This exhibit has attempted to argue that the social activities of State's Mates created a sense of common identity among members by promoting ideals of white Southern womanhood that were dominant during the first half of the twentieth century.  These ideals were increasingly challenged throughout the 1960's.

State's Mates increasingly became defined in the eyes of its surrounding culture by its response to these challenges.  An early example is the parodying of the countercultural beatnik movement in 1960; later, by the activities of contestants in the Mrs. NC State pageant.  Not all responses were negative: guest speakers in the late 1960's and early 1970's spoke on newer developments in women's issues such as birth control and women's liberation.  For an organization that defined itself around wifehood, however, there was only so much that State's Mates could do.

State's Mates disbanded as an organization in 1977, and its records can be found in the North Carolina State University Special Collections Research Center.

Visit other Exhibits in the Good Wife Diploma.