The Villages - March 2018 - 21

Jill Moss GreenberG
to pursue a career in education or nursing, simply
because they were common vocations for females then,
the experience changed her mind.
"Once I started working with people with disabilities, I
knew I had to work in special education," she said. "When
you see people who really need the support of caring and
capable people, you feel obligated to do whatever you can."
Following years of unswerving advocacy, Greenberg
uncovered the veiled history of countless unsung
heroines - women whom the textbooks had forgotten.
"Most of us never learned the whole story in schools
or at home," she said. "We never heard about the women
who maintained our families, who volunteered at our
churches, synagogues and mosques - the workers and
caretakers. Where is the other half of our history?"
Compelled to highlight the forgotten heroines,
Greenberg founded the Maryland Women's History
project in 1980.
"We had a wonderful group of women from diverse
organizations come together to work on developing
materials for students," she said. "We did that for 25
years, and the very last year, we created Maryland
Women's Heritage Trail, which identified over 150 sites
throughout the state where women made a significant
contribution. Girls Scouts took tours and all kinds of

Jill working with students in a Building Bridges program.

Rights Amendment, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act and
Title IX. She served on the Maryland Advisory Committee
to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and worked to create the Martin Luther King Jr. national holiday.
"In 2020, we will celebrate the 100th anniversary of
women being granted the right to vote," she said, with a
broad smile shaped by decades of triumphs over inequity.
"And did you know," she added, "it happened when the
mother of one of the legislators said, 'Vote for this or you
will not come to dinner anymore.' This is another example
of the little ways women have influenced history."
A retired Village La Zamora resident, Greenberg

"We had a Wonderful group of Women from
diverse organizations come together to
Work on developing materials for students."
groups began to honor those places on the trail."
And while giving girls strong role models was a goal
- it was not the only goal.
"We wanted to teach boys, too. They could respect
women, and they needed to understand they could do
things that were not traditional," she said. "We wanted
to enable everyone to fulfill what they were capable of."
In 1995, Greenberg was named to the Maryland Women's Hall of Fame, and later co-founded the Maryland
Women's Heritage Center. She represented her county on
the Maryland State Commission for Women and played
a significant role in the passage of the Maryland Equal

earned many titles in various careers - founder,
executive director and race equity specialist, for
example. The National Women's History project will
honor her in Washington, along with other chosen
activists who exemplify the 2018 theme for National
Women's History Month - "Nevertheless, she
persisted." Throughout her life, Greenberg has built
bridges, created coalitions and mentored others on all
levels where unfairness was involved.
But along with her many roles and achievements,
she is best known as a woman who simply believed
something could be done ... and then did it.

MAGAZINE

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Villages - March 2018