Women's Group Creates a Space for The Life of the Mind

Almost nothing can get in the way of Hilary Barnes Hoopes's attendance at a special Wednesday morning speakers series. It is there, in a Bethesda church, that she listens to experts, politicians and authors talk about a range of topics, from childhood obesity to quilting to Paleolithic cave paintings.

Hoopes, a mother of 7-year-old twins and a 4-year-old, not only has the opportunity to hear nationally recognized speakers, she also connects intellectually with other women, many of them stay-at-home moms.

"I don't miss it, I can't miss it," said Hoopes, 38, an adjunct professor of museum education at George Washington University. "I've been here every Wednesday for the past year. I don't even bother checking to see who the speaker is."

Many of the 130 members, who come from across the area, find it hard to stay away.

Some describe the group as an "intellectual jump-start" or "academic retreat." For others it's a "sanity pill" or a "sacred hour." What everyone does agree on is that it is a break from a day that otherwise can be all about kids or work.

"It's a lifesaving force when you think you're brain-dead," said Cathy Bamji, 43, a Silver Spring mother of two school-age children who worked previously as a consultant. "When you're caught up in a 2-year-old's world and a 4-year-old's language, you get intellectual stimulation, a support group, friendship and an adult perspective."

"These women know about female generational angst," said author Iris Krasnow, a four-time speaker at the Wednesday Morning Group and an American University journalism professor. "A lot of them have shelved, tailored their careers to do wifedom, child care, motherhood."

The Wednesday Morning Group has been offering a venue for academic discussion for 44 years and has grown into a popular series that attracts prominent figures who speak for free. A baby-sitting co-op is a favorite feature for parents of younger children. Most of the attendees are stay-at-home moms, and 60 percent have advanced degrees. About 45 percent of the members are women who work outside the home.

"It's obvious that we met a huge need for women," said Wanda Van Goor, 78, of Chevy Chase, who helped start the group. "It was [initially] all about my own needs, but it's obvious that we met a huge need for all women."

"It's incredible that it's lasted," said Roz Hiebert, 76, of Rockville, another founding member who in the early 1960s had four children under 7.

In 1962, Van Goor and Hiebert and another mother, all members of Cedar Lane Unitarian Universalist Church in Bethesda, started the Wednesday Morning Group, innocently enough, as a get-together for women with college educations who opted to stay at home with their children. These women were not looking for a play group for their kids; they were looking for something for themselves, and for them that meant intellectual stimulation.

"I told my husband that one day he would walk into the house and find me in the back of the closet in a fetal position," said Van Goor, an English professor at Prince George's Community College. "I was going crazy. I just wanted to talk to other adults. . . . I started [the group] out of sheer necessity."