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Different Roles for Women

Ruth Carter

Ruth Carter, a Scattergood volunteer, ready to work in the field

Ruth Carter, a Quaker volunteer, was the head of the education department at Scattergood and was no stranger to hard work. Ruth often worked in the tomato fields at Scattergood or helped with repair work. Not all of the women on the staff worked outdoors as Ruth did, but she represented new opportunities and changing gender roles that would shape the refugees' perspective of Midwestern culture.

The new gender roles the guests observed represented the difference between rural and urban life more than the difference between German and American life. In Germany as in the U.S., farm women were used to heavy outdoor work.