The Red Hat Society (RHS) is an international social organization that was founded in 1998 in the United States for women age 50 and beyond, but now open to women of all ages.

Mary Elizabeth Sutherland Carpenter was a writer, feminist, reporter, media advisor, speechwriter, political humorist, and public relations expert. As the first woman executive assistant to Vice President Lyndon Baines Johnson from 1961 to 1963, and then as press secretary for First Lady Lady Bird Johnson from 1963 to 1969, Carpenter was a prominent member of the Johnson White House and also a close personal friend of the Johnsons.