Red Hat Society

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The Red Hat Society is a social organization for women over 50. The Society was founded in 1998 by Sue Ellen Cooper of Fullerton, California. As of October 2006 there are about 1.5 million registered members in over forty thousand chapters in the United States and thirty other countries.[1] Their members come from all walks of life.

[edit] About the society

The Red Hat Society is not a sorority or a voluntary service club. There are no initiations, no fundraising projects, no rules and no bylaws. The Society fondly refers to itself as a "dis-organization" with the aim of social interaction, and to encourage fun, silliness, creativity, and friendship in middle age and beyond. The Society takes its name from the opening lines of the poem Warning by Jenny Joseph, which starts:

When I am an old woman I shall wear purple

With a red hat that doesn't go and doesn't suit me.

A founder or leader of a local chapter is usually referred to as a "Queen". Members are called "Red Hatters" or "Pink Hatters". Members over fifty years old wear red hats and purple attire. During their birthday month they wear a purple hat with a red attire. A woman under age fifty may also become a member, but she wears pink hats and lavender attire to Society's events until reaching her fiftieth birthday.

Both Red and Pink Hatters often tend to wear very elaborately decorated hats, and attention-getting fashion accessories such as a feather boa. The Society's events vary depending on the chapter, but one of the more favored pastimes amongst most Red Hatters is attending or giving a tea party.

There are now over 69,000 chapters worldwide.

The organization has published four books: Red Hat Society: Fun and Friendship at 50 and Red Hat Society's Laugh Lines: Stories of Inspiration and Hattitude, Designer Scrapbooks the Red Hat Society Way (2005, Sterling), and The Red Hat Society Cookbook which features recipes submitted by members. Regional gatherings called "Funventions" are held several times a year, along with official Red Hat Society events.

The official Red Hat Society day is April 25 each year.

The Red Hat Society is paid homage to in one episode of the Simpsons, The Last of the Red Hat Mamas, wherein Marge joins a group called The Cheery Red Tomatoes.