Title To live here, you have to fight : how women led Appalachian movements for social justice / Jessica Wilkerson

Published Urban, Chicago : University of Illinois Press, [2019]

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Description 1 online resource Series The working class in American history Working class in American history. Contents The political and gender economy of the Mountain South, 1900-1964 -- "I was always interested in people's welfare" : bringing the war on poverty to Kentucky -- "In the eyes of the poor, the Black, the youth" : poverty politics in Appalachia -- March for survival : the Appalachian welfare rights movement -- "The best care in history" : interdependence and the community health movement -- "I'm fighting for my own children that I'm raising up" : women, labor, and protest in Harlan County -- "Nothing worse than being poor and a woman" : feminism in the Mountain South Summary "When Lyndon B. Johnson declared a War on Poverty in 1964, the coalfields of the Appalachian South was one of the frontlines: unemployment was high, development had been hampered by the single-industry economy, and natural and man-made disasters were common. Neither Johnson nor his policy officials could have anticipated that local women and their outsider allies would become key figures in addressing these issues, shaping local antipoverty programs to their needs. Informed by labor struggles of the past as well as contemporary social justice struggles, working-class women expanded the vision and reach of antipoverty programs as their activism continued into the 1970s and 1980s. They led a regional welfare rights movement that organized women's health groups, protested the harsh environmental and labor policies of the coal industry, joined union picket lines, started community health clinics, and fought for access to jobs previously closed to women. Wilkerson examines the intersections of gender, race, class, social movements, and public policy in the Appalachian South. While policy makers in the 1960s and since framed welfare policy as a state of dependency, working-class women exposed the gendered gaps in that debate by arguing that their work as caregivers was valuable labor. These women joined a broad coalition of black women, civil rights activists, disabled men, and antipoverty workers, revealing how mainstream these debates had become by the early 1970s. A study of women's lives, work, and activism in the coalfields allows for a close examination of how class and gender intersect in capitalist society, spotlighting in particular the unpaid caregiving and reproductive labor that is necessary to sustain life yet is devalued--or ignored"-- Provided by publisher Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 203-248) and index Notes Description based on print version record Subject Women -- Political activity -- Appalachian Region, Southern Social action -- Appalachian Region, Southern POLITICAL SCIENCE / Essays POLITICAL SCIENCE / Government / General POLITICAL SCIENCE / Government / National POLITICAL SCIENCE / Reference POLITICAL SCIENCE / Labor & Industrial Relations Social action Social conditions Women -- Political activity SUBJECT Appalachian Region, Southern -- Social conditions -- 20th century Subject Southern Appalachian Region Form Electronic book LC no. 2019718315 ISBN 9780252050923 0252050924

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