Nothing changed as much in the 1920s as opportunities for women. More women than ever before worked outside the home, attended school, started professional careers.

Teacher Fannie Cobb Carter of Charleston became the first Black newspaperwoman in West Virginia and a leader in the fight against illiteracy.

In 1922, two years after women received the vote, Izetta Jewell Brown, an actress and suffragette from Kingwood became the first woman in the South to run for the United States Senate.

The following year, a 14-year-old girl in Roane County was arrested for wearing pants, a violation of a local law banning females from dressing in anything that impersonates male attire. The next day, she and three girlfriends paraded through the town in forbidden clothing. The issue, pants or no pants, dominated the town's next election. "No pants" politicians lost.