Activities and Roles of Women

The main emphasis of the Women's Club of Greenbelt is to aid the community. They also believe in helping each other within the home so their jobs as mothers and wives would not be so difficult. One of the first projects the Women's Club adopted was the formation of the town band. They started this band for young boys and girls so they would have something constructive to do with their free time. The also started a place called the Drop Inn (Willamson 272). The Drop Inn served as a place for the youth of the community to get together and have functions. The Women's Club supported these functions by acting as hostesses. They also donated a significant amount of money to the youth center so that they would be able to furnish the place.

Another significant place that the women of Greenbelt helped were in the hospitals. Health care was a big concern for people (especially in Greenbelt) who did not have a lot of money. In Greenbelt there is a Health Association that provided members with health services for a small fee. In the early 1940s this fee decreased and allowed many more people to receive health care benefits. The women of Greenbelt volunteered many service hours at Prince Georges General Hospital. For their outstanding service, the Women's Club of Greenbelt was offered to enroll as a member of the Hospital Guild. They also adopted a ward at Glenn Dale Mental Hospital as one of their welfare projects. These women were clearly active participants in their community. They did what ever was necessary to further themselves as well as the community organizations around them.

A third area that the women's club actively participated in was the war effort. During wartime the women in the community became active in United States Organizations including the Red Cross Association. Their service in the Red Cross Association was vast. They participated in a variety of events that furthered the cause. Some women were canteen workers while others were first-aid workers, and still others were nurse's aids. Some of the women put their lives on the line, just like the men, in order to further their countries needs. Women who were unable to serve in the more brutal and physical aspects of the war effort kept things peaceful at home. These women started salvage campaigns which asked many of the people living in Greenbelt to conserve what they were eating. Instead of eating meat try to but more inexpensive foods so that you can save food as well as money. There were also clothing drives held to collect clothes for relief purposes. One of the most popular ways that the women helped with the war effort was by selling war bonds and stamps. The bulk of these bonds and stamps were sold in the theaters. I found that fact a little astonishing considering we are talking about a period of time following the Great Depression. How did these people afford to go to the theater and on top of that be able to but war bonds and stamps?

Three specific women from the Women's Club of Greenbelt made a flag for members of the Greenbelt band who were going to join the armed forces. These women also participated in entertainment for the service men. They would sing and dance for soldiers that were stationed close by. This would sometimes be a real pick-me-up for the soldiers when their morale was the lowest and they were missing their families. (Warner187-88) A final project that shows how active the women of Greenbelt were in the war effort is a project known as The Cookie Drive. The Cookie Drive was initiated by another group in the Greenbelt area, but the Women's Club became active participants. The Drive requested that each group donate at least a dozen cookies a week that would then be placed in a large cookie jar and mailed off to soldiers. It did not seem like much but the whole community was involved. The American Red Cross even distributed extra sugar coupons so that the women would be able to make all the cookies that were needed. Each of the large jars would hole seventy dozen cookies. That was definitely a lot of baking during the week.(Williamson 121)

The Women's Club also participated in other various realms of the war effort including the Blood Bank, polio drives, inauguration of the town rescue squad, sending care packages, giving gifts to veterans hospitals, first-aid classes, and a variety of other events. One of the most important of these was the sharing of recipes and meals as well as the effects the cooperative system had on the food that these women purchased.

Many of these women were also members of other clubs including; the quilting association, the sitters club, homemakers club and the gardening club. These clubs will be described in more detail on their own page. After looking at all of the activities that women in the women's club were involved in I found it interesting how they had enough time to attend to the house as well as the community. After looking at Lisa Estrada's page I can begin to understand why they had free time. Lisa explains the evolution of the stove and explains that the evolution of the stove is a crucial factor that allowing women to participate in activities outside of the home. By changing to an electric stove a lot of time was saved. Meals were able to be prepared more quickly and therefore the women could make a meal in the morning, go and tend to the community during the day, and then at night return to the home and reheat the meal. This may not have been approved by the husband, but it allowed the women of the community to form stronger relationships and more unified bonds to the community. Unlike the efficiency that came with the invention of the electric stove, the refrigerator was still a big problem. According to Kimberly Scala the kitchens during the Depression were smaller than they previously were. This would now require the women to go shopping more often for groceries which wouldtake up a lot of their community time. But at the same time the idea of having to always buy groceries brought the women together in working at the cooperative grocery stores. So as the refrigerator goes it brought both good and bad qualities to the woman's role as mother and wife.

Above is the handbook for the Women's club of Greenbelt. It is an authentic copy from the period of 1937-1945. It is bound with leatherand is the same size as a normal book, 8 1/2 X 11. I thought the handbook itself was very interesting because it did not describe the goals of the club or the rules and regulations which were supposed to be followed, it simply provided a place for women in the club to place their recipes. In the book there were specific sections for salads, dinner rolls and breads, fine meats, poultry and seafood, deserts, vegetables, and several others. Even though the women's club was involved in many other interesting areas of service their main priority was to their home and their family. This is clearly illustrated from the Women's Club Handbook.

Project Three