Which is the correct sentence and why?

Could somebody please reply to my post?

"Was" refers to the group all doing something together. "Were" refers to the women doing things individually. There is little or no difference between them.

Thanks,

The correct sentence is A party of women was doing several things in the town.

A party describesone group, which is singular.

I'm confused by the replies to the extent that I don't know which answer is the correct one.

A party of women was doing several things in the town.

The above sentence is the correct one.

The use of the word 'were' cannot be applied here. In order to use 'were' the sentence would need to have been written 'Women were doing several things in the town.'. Or even, 'Parties of women were doing several things in the town.'

Both of the above refer to more than one. Women is more than one and parties is the plural of party, so, here too there would be more than one.
The word 'were ' is used for situations where more than one is indicated.



Again, 'A party of women ' refers to a group. One group. Therefore it is singular and uses 'was'.