UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations 1-1-1995 "Surely, a wench can choose her own work!" Women coal miners in Paonia, Colorado, 1976-1987 Dona G Gearhart University of Nevada, Las Vegas Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/rtds Repository Citation Gearhart, Dona G, ""Surely, a wench can choose her own work!" Women coal miners in Paonia, Colorado, 1976-1987" (1995). UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations. 2995. http://dx.doi.org/10.25669/83uw-c7cr This Dissertation is protected by copyright and/or related rights. It has been brought to you by Digital Scholarship@UNLV with permission from the rights-holder(s). You are free to use this Dissertation in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s) directly, unless additional rights are indicated by a Creative Commons license in the record and/or on the work itself. 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Gearhart A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History Department of History University of Nevada, Las Vegas May 1996 UMI Number: 9636879 Copyright 1996 by Gearhart, Dona G. All rights reserved. UMI Microform 9636879 Copyright 1996, by UMI Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. UMI 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, MI 48103 ©1996 Dona G. Gearhart All Rights Reserved The Dissertation of Dona G. Gearhart for the degree of PhD in History approved. Chairperson, Hal Rothman, Ph.D. - — — * Examining Comnrutjfee Member, Joanne Goodwin Ph.D. Examining ^ o im iit^ ^ ^ b e r^ a y ^ C jCoughtry o iJay Ph.D. ,/C £ ir - j . -----t L Graduate Faculty Representative, Rick Tilman Ph.D. Dean of the Graduate College, Ronald W. Smith Ph.D. University of Nevada, Las Vegas May, 1996 ABSTRACT In 1842 the British Parliament passed the Mines and Collieries Act which excluded women from working in underground mines. The legislation created a gender based, industry-wide segmentation of labor that persisted in Great Britain and the United States for 130 years. Post-World War II social and legal changes created a context from which women reappropriated their choice to seek jobs as underground coal miners. Women's representation in the industry increased into the 1980s, peaking at between eight and eleven percent of the workforce, but by 1983 their numbers began to substantially decline. After the coal boom of the 1970s ended, hundreds of coal miners were layed off, accounting for much of the decline. But other women chose to leave the occupation. Although women continue to work underground, the occupation has been resegregated. How and why has that happened? The purpose of this study is to examine the dynamics of the original segregation of the coal industry by sex, its persistence, desegregation in the 1970s, and finally its resegregation. Experiences of women interviewed for this study raised the issue of choice. Coal company documents and oral interviews of women miners associated with the Orchard Valley Mine in Paonia, Colorado, raise the possibility that despite efforts by women and the industry, there are occupations that are appropriately sex segregated. TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT............................................................................................................iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS................................................................................ v CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION....................................................................... 1 CHAPTER 2 EXCLUSION...................................................................................6 CHAPTER 3 WINDOW OF EQUAL OPPORTUNITY..................................32 CHAPTER 4 PAONIA AND THE NORTH FORK VALLEY........................ 74 CHAPTER 5 THE ROAD TO THE ORCHARD VALLEY M IN E ................104 CHAPTER 6 DIFFERENCE IN A MASCULINE ENVIRONMENT 135 CHAPTER 7 EX IT ..............................................................................................173 CHAPTER 8 CONCLUSION ...........................................................................211 APPENDIX I ....................................................................................................... 223 BIBLIOGRAPHY................................................................................................224 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to express my appreciation to Hal Rothman, Jay Coughtry, and Joanne Goodwin for their valuable assistance in the production of this document. I want to thank the Graduate College and History Department at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas for their support in the form of the Doctoral Graduate Assistant Award. I owe a special debt of gratitude to Marie Tadesco of the Archives and Special Collections of the Sherrod Library at East Tennessee State University and Shirley Lund of the Paonia Public Library for their valuable assistance in the research of this project. Finally, I would like to publicly acknowledge the life-long support, integrity, and wisdom of my parents, Frank and Mary Drake. v CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Until 1973, women in the United States were denied the opportunity to work in underground mines. Although a few women worked in family mines throughout the twentieth century, their labor remained hidden to all but those directly involved. Underground mining had been established as inappropriate work for women through law and custom originating in nineteenth-century England. In 1842 the British Parliament passed the Mines and Collieries Act which, among other things, excluded women from working in underground mines. The legislation, in one grand gesture, created a gender-based, industry-wide segmentation of labor that persisted in Great Britain and the United States for 130 years. The social, political, and economic discourse surrounding the exclusion legislation was rooted in fundamental changes accompanying the industrialization process, specifically the emerging prescriptions concerning the stabilization of the family and women's role within it. Although an investigative effort into the conditions of work for women and children preceded the Mines and Collieries Act, it became much more than an attempt to protect their health and safety. The image of the underground woman miner as portrayed by enthusiastic investigators through sexual imagery and metaphor was inconsistent with the virtuous woman that middle-class reformers and working-class activists attempted to create with 1 2 the new domestic ideology. One way to square image with reality was to remove women from the underground mine.1 The United States established its own version of domestic ideology, not substantially different from that of Great Britain, and although the barrier to women working in American mines did not include federal legal sanctions, women were nonetheless prohibited from working underground through a combination of social prescriptions of appropriate work for women, state laws, and a powerful superstition based on long-standing mine-culture beliefs originating in England and Wales. Customs and traditions accompanied English, Scotch, and Welsh immigrants to American coal fields and helped reinforce practices already emerging in the United States. The gender segregation of the coal industry proved persistent throughout most of the twentieth century. Even the labor shortages of two world wars failed to alter the entrenched barrier to women's underground work. Post-World War II technology, social, and legal transformations created a context in which women reappropriated their choice to seek jobs as underground coal miners. Liberated from the idea that women must