Daughters of the Mountain: Women Coal Miners in Central Appalachia (Rural Studies Series of the Rural Sociological Society)

225 Pages·2006·2.21 MB·English

by  Suzanne E. Tallichet

DAUGHTERS OF THE MOUNTAIN

DAUGHTERS
OF THE MOUNTAIN
women coal miners in central appalachia
suzanne e. tallichet
the pennsylvania state university press
university park, pennsylvania
Publicationofthisbookhasbeenaided
throughfundingbythe
WestVirginiaHumanitiesCouncil.
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Tallichet,SuzanneE.
Daughtersofthemountain:womencoalminersincentralAppalachia/
bySuzanneE.Tallichet.
p. cm.
(RuralstudiesseriesoftheRuralSociologicalSociety)
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN0-271-02903-X(cloth:alk.paper)
ISBN0-271-02904-8(pbk.:alk.paper)
1. Womencoalminers—WestVirginia.
2. Sexdiscriminationagainstwomen—WestVirginia.
I.Title.
II.Series.
HD6073.M62U682006
331.4(cid:2)822334097544—dc22
2006007763
Copyright(cid:2)2006
ThePennsylvaniaStateUniversity
Allrightsreserved
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
PublishedbyThePennsylvaniaStateUniversityPress,
UniversityPark,PA16802-1003
ThePennsylvaniaStateUniversityPress
isamemberofthe
AssociationofAmericanUniversityPresses.
Itisthepolicyof
ThePennsylvaniaStateUniversityPress
touseacid-freepaper.Thisbookisprintedon
NaturesNatural,containing50%post-consumerwaste,and
meetstheminimumrequirementsofAmericanNational
StandardforInformationSciences—
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ANSIZ39.48–1992.
CONTENTS
Preface vii
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction 1
1
DiggingIn:
CopingwithSexualizedWorkRelations 21
2
FromRedCaptoCoalMiner:
AdaptationandAdvancementUnderground 61
3
OursinSolidarity:
WomenMinersandtheumwa 103
4
OvertheLongHaul:
AccommodationandResistancetothe
CultureofCoalMining 135
Epilogue 169
Appendix:
FieldworkandProfilesoftheStudy 179
References 195
Index 207

PREFACE
Sometimesitislife’stragediesandthesorrowtheybringthatultimately
provide the personal spark for scholarly investigations, such as the one
represented in this book. Ironically, where one woman’s life ended, an
important part of mine began. The story behind this study of women
minersinsouthernWestVirginiastartedinStateCollege,Pennsylvania,
on the morning of October 6, 1979, when I picked up a folded edition
of the local paper from the foyer floor. The front-page headline of the
Centre Daily Times read: ‘‘Miner Dives to Safety, But . . . Tragic Scene
EtchedinHisMind.’’Beingagraduatestudentinjournalismbackthen,
I began reading this article to see how it was written. But the more I
read,themoreIwasdrawnintothestoryitself.Afewdaysearlierthere
hadbeen anaccidentat theRushtonMine inOsceolaMills,Pennsylva-
nia, only about an hour’s drive west from our campus community. Far
removed from the relatively insular environment of a university town,
newsofthistragicaccidenthadcomespillingoutofadarkanddanger-
ous world much like the thirty-foot layer of rock that had descended
upon a miner running a roof bolter and his helper, a woman miner
named Marilyn McCusker. He escaped certain death; she did not. Mc-
Cusker had become wedged underneath the slab and had suffocated to
death.Horrificasthiswas,Iwasjustasstruckbyherco-worker’sexpla-
nation of events. He said that women didn’t belong in the mines be-
cause they did not react as quickly as men. Nonetheless, he concluded
withthehauntingandcontradictorycommentthat‘‘sheseemedtohesi-
tate when that rock started coming. Maybe she waited to see if I made
it.’’
As much as McCusker’s death had nagged me since that crisp fall
morning,ithadalsofueledmyfascinationwithwomeninmining.Dur-
ing the years that followed, I read numerous magazine and newspaper
viii preface
articlesaboutwomenminers,layingthefoundationformydoctoraldis-
sertation in rural sociology at Penn State. I knew that women miners
werehavingtroubleadvancingtomoreskilledjobs,butIneededtofind
empirical support for this. So I began with a Bureau of Mines data set
based on a random survey of men and women miners nationwide. It
includedallthevariablesnecessaryforestablishingjob-levelsexsegrega-
tion among underground coal miners and for assessing the effects of
genderandhuman capitalfactors(age,training,andjobexperience)on
miners’ job rank. I found that women were concentrated in the lower
job ranks, relative to men, but also that gender was a more powerful
predictor of a miner’s job rank than all the human capital factors com-
bined. However, confining my inquiry to the use of a variable did not
tell me how gender was adversely affecting women’s advancement. Sta-
tisticsinnowayrevealedwomenminers’livedexperiences.Ineededto
use qualitative techniques, but actually going into the field to interview
women miners was a whole other prospect. No one in my family had
everbeenacoalminer.Ididnotevenknowanycoalminers.SoIbegan
poringoverbooksaboutminingtechnology,laborhistory,andanything
elsewrittenaboutwomencoalminers.
I learned from my reading of the Coal Employment Project (cep), a
women miners’ advocacy group. Before going into the field I attended
twooftheirannualconferencesandspenthourstalkingtowomenmin-
ers from across the country, among them Cosby Totten and Bernice
Dombrowski.Cosby,aformerminerandcep director,alwaysmademe
feelincludedatthewomen’sconferences.AndBernice,whohadworked
with Marilyn McCusker at the Rushton mine, gave me some pointers
aboutaskingquestions.NextIneededtolocateacohortofwomenmin-
ers, but where? At the next cep conference I talked with former coal
minerMaratMoore,whowasnowajournalistandphotographerforthe
UnitedMineWorkers’Journal.Shesuggestedseverallargecoalminesfor
potential study. But how could I get permission to do the interviews,
examine employment records, or go on underground tours of the
mines? Back on the Penn State campus, mining engineering professor
Stanley Suboleski helped me get a coal company’s permission to do all
these things if I promised to preserve the anonymity of my sources. I
have kept this promise and refer to the women I interviewed or con-
versedwithbrieflybypseudonymonly.Iamalsodeeplyindebtedtomy
mentors, Carolyn Sachs and the late Ken Wilkinson, for their sincerity
and wisdom during the dissertation phase of the study, and to my col-
preface ix
league Rosalind Harris, who has been a constant source of inspiration
andanunflaggingsupporterofthisproject.
I recall vividly the gray overcast day I left the cornfields of central
Pennsylvania for the coalfields of southern West Virginia. Armed with
my interview questions and informed consent forms, a new handheld
tape recorder, and several boxes of blank tapes, along with my clothes,
some books, and a small wad of traveler’s checks, I felt as if I were
plunging into another world, excited about who I might encounter yet
anxious about what I might not accomplish. For more than a month I
was to become a part of a small coal-mining town, yet remain separate
fromitasIconductedinterviews,eyeballeddocuments,andtouredboth
surfaceandundergroundminingfacilities.
Myfirstforayintothefieldwastobenothinglessthanatranscenden-
tal experience. At times it took on an almost surreal quality, because I
spent almost as much time observing myself as I did observing others.
Thatwasinthefallof1990.Fiveyearslater,afterbecominganassistant
professor, I returned tothe study site during the summers of 1995 and
1996.
My fieldwork began during my between-shift meetings with the
women in their bathhouse. I was also a frequent visitor in the lamp-
house where miners congregated. When the atmosphere seemed right,
Ilingeredinofficesandinlocaldinerstojoinconversationsthatsooner
orlaterturnedtominingissues.Buildingrapportwithwomenandmen
miners was crucial to my study, and at times it came slowly and awk-
wardly. Some members of the mining community were very open and
outspoken.Others wereinitiallysuspiciousandvoicedtheirfearsabout
keepingtheir well-payingjobs. Theyusually declinedto beinterviewed.
For those I did interview, my questions brought back good and bad
memoriesalike.SoIlearnedtotreadlightlyaroundminers’unresolved
conflictsandresentments.Iheardstoriesaboutstrikeviolenceandmin-
ers’ mistrustof boththe company andtheir own union. Metaphorically
speaking, being in the field was sometimes like being in a gassy mine.
A wrong move on my part could spark an explosion, with disastrous
resultsforallinvolved.Nonetheless,myownprivilegebecameapparent
to me: I could always leave town, but those whose lives I had affected
could not. Thus, I felt a particular obligation not to stir up trouble or
betray anyone’s trust. And so, when some women said they feared a
backlash if I interviewed their male co-workers and bosses, I chose not
to contact them. Although this is the study’s most obvious limitation,