3. From Desperation Came Enterprise
In these communal living spaces, women were feeling powerful and free, so they dared to think bigger. Instead of just doing odd jobs just to survive with basic food and shelter, many of the women began opening small businesses around town. The two most popular all-women businesses in the Belton Commonwealth were laundromats and boarding houses. Now, people in town could carry their laundry to the laundromat, instead of women going door to door to do the laundry for their neighbors. This made the process much more efficient, and laundromats are still around to this day.
Before this time, it was completely unheard of for women to become entrepreneurs. Men were usually in charge of the money, and many women were not given enough education to even know how to handle accounting. In 1891, the group defied all expectations and formed a corporation called The Central Hotel Company, and they opened multiple hotels in order to get income from renting rooms to men and women. With this money, they were able to purchase two farms that would grow food to support food to feed all of their employees. In this Commonwealth, each individual woman’s work was seen as being extremely valuable, and they felt appreciated for the first time in their lives. It only encouraged them to keep working harder, which in turn, lead to more success.