Walking the line: Women and industrial conflict in southern West Virginia

During the turbulent labor struggles of the twentieth century, the coal industry in the United States was marked by significant contests over union organization and industrial power. Many historical interpretations of labor-management strife in Appalachia have dismissed the participatory roles of women as stakeholders in contract negotiations and strikes. This research utilized three distinct ethnographic case studies to demonstrate that women were indeed an integral part of the labor-management bargaining process. Tangible outcomes of various disputes clearly depended on community involvement and women's activities. Fieldwork was conducted for ten months in Logan County, West Virginia to collect life histories from women in the coal fields. Ethnographic data was consolidated with archival and historical sources to reconstruct women's roles in mining industry conflicts. Gender roles in single-industry communities were examined to determine how women in southern West Virginia were involved in the structuration of the local political economy of coal. Several issues pertaining to labor conflicts were evaluated in each case study, including factors and processes that were influential in women's decisions to engage in political action, the building of strategic coalitions and alliances, and participation in acts of civil disobedience and armed conflict during industrial disputes. The first case study revealed disillusionment and community turmoil associated with reports of widespread corruption in the United Mine Workers of America from the late 1960s to the late 1970s. The second case examined issues surrounding the Pittston Contract Strike of 1989, and demonstrated the ramifications of women's participation and community organizing on the process of union-company contract negotiations. The final case surveyed the most recent data on women's views of mountaintop removal mining as it pertains to community conflict in southern West Virginia today. The current conflict between environmental and community activists and the coal industry revealed great insight into the historical progression of women's participatory roles in industry disputes. The results of this project significantly contribute to the field of cultural anthropology and the study of industrial dispute resolution. This research supports studies of gender, the anthropology of work, and the continuing evaluation of women's roles in industrial and political resistance activities.