<p>Recently, I was asked by a busy male worker in a printing plant why I wasn't a JAP. I learned that this is an acronym Jewish men give their wives—Jewish American Princess.</p>

<p>The term was coined by Sidonie Gruenberg, The Many Lives of Modern Women (New York: Doubleday, 1952).</p>

<p>Women today volunteer even during child-rearing years; past thirty-five they volunteer for shorter periods; volunteers frequently move about to various agencies.</p>

<p>American literature has virtually ignored the woman volunteer. The few exceptions include Sinclair Lewis' Ann Vickers and Main Street and, more recently, Jan de Hartog's The Hospital.</p>

<p>A three-year study, begun in 1968 by United Funds and Community Councils of America, on volunteers in cities may deal with some of these questions.</p>

<p>U.S. Department of Labor, op. ctt., p. 1.</p>

<p>When I lived in a suburb in 1953, there were more than 426 organizations, more than half for women, to serve 17,000 families. Professional writings barely mention voluntarism in suburbia, except for comments on its quality of local concern— PTA, home ownership, zoning, and so forth. My own observations show it has accounted for a large proportion of »caustists« (those who initiate social action) and »culturalists« (those who initiate cultural activities).

<p>This is detailed by Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique (New York: Dell Publishing Co., 1963).</p>

<p>During this period the United States had a woman cabinet member, Frances D. Perkins, who served as Secretary of Labor between 1933 and 1945. The only other woman cabinet member in U.S. history was Oveta Culp Hobby, Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare under Eisenhower. (In passing one might note that the National Labor Relations Board ruled during World War II that a woman might not be called a drafts-woman in order to evade the wage scale paid to draftsmen.)</p>

<p>ln one women's organization even today, the women volunteers work alongside the staff in such profusion that one can distinguish them only because most volunteers wear hats.</p>