Service Projects as a Means of Displaying Femininity

State's Mates meeting, 1955.

 The service projects that State's Mates chose reflect the nurturing aspects of femininity that were typically associated with motherhood in the middle part of the twentieth century. The majority of projects that the organization became involved with focused upon caretaking, particularly in relation to children and the elderly. While some scholars have asserted that volunteerism allowed women to participate in activities that were beyond the norms of the household, it seems that State's Mates utilized the skills that they had harnessed in the home for the good of the community around them.

Community service activities were thus an outlet for the members of State's Mates to publicly display their femininity and gave them a public voice, legitimized by their roles and experiences as mothers. Volunteerism among women in this era typically involved caring for the “less-fortunate,” accentuating their roles as “social mothers.”  Activities such as these challenge the traditional narrative of the 1950s as being a dormant period for activism among women when they were supposedly confined to the home; this aspect of civic participation will be explored throughout the exhibit.

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