Karen Olson is Professor of History and Anthropology at the Community College of Baltimore County.

“Wives of Steel addresses a key failure of most studies of industrial communities. Too often scholars assume that male-dominated industries and their communities are shaped by men who hold the industrial jobs. By placing women at the forefront of the Sparrows Point story, Olson shows how women experienced deindustrialization differently than men. Forced to join the workforce to help families survive the loss of well-paying union jobs, many women discovered the rewards of increased independence and autonomy. The result is a more complicated, and more persuasive, picture of America’s postindustrial communities. Wives of Steel will find an eager audience among labor, women’s, community studies scholars; students; and the general public.”—Laurie Mercier, Washington State University, Vancouver

• ContentsIntroduction1. Sparrows Point, Turners Station, and Dundalk: The History of the Mill’s Communities2. The Gendered World of Steel: It’s a Man’s World Inside the Sparrows Point Mill3. Boarders and the Long Turn in a Company Town: Sparrows Point Wives, 1887–19454. The Family Works the Schedule: Steelworkers’ Wives, 1945–19705. Women Steelworkers at the Point: Interlopers in a Man’s World6. Deindustrialization at Sparrows Point: Disappearance of the Breadwinner-Homemaker7. Renegotiating Families with Two Breadwinners: Partnership and Divorce8. A Larger Circle of Neighbors: Deindustrialization and the Web of Class, Race, Gender, and LocationConclusionBibliographyIndex

Karen Olson is Professor of History and Anthropology at the Community College of Baltimore County.

“Wives of Steel addresses a key failure of most studies of industrial communities. Too often scholars assume that male-dominated industries and their communities are shaped by men who hold the industrial jobs. By placing women at the forefront of the Sparrows Point story, Olson shows how women experienced deindustrialization differently than men. Forced to join the workforce to help families survive the loss of well-paying union jobs, many women discovered the rewards of increased independence and autonomy. The result is a more complicated, and more persuasive, picture of America’s postindustrial communities. Wives of Steel will find an eager audience among labor, women’s, community studies scholars; students; and the general public.”—Laurie Mercier, Washington State University, Vancouver

• ContentsIntroduction1. Sparrows Point, Turners Station, and Dundalk: The History of the Mill’s Communities2. The Gendered World of Steel: It’s a Man’s World Inside the Sparrows Point Mill3. Boarders and the Long Turn in a Company Town: Sparrows Point Wives, 1887–19454. The Family Works the Schedule: Steelworkers’ Wives, 1945–19705. Women Steelworkers at the Point: Interlopers in a Man’s World6. Deindustrialization at Sparrows Point: Disappearance of the Breadwinner-Homemaker7. Renegotiating Families with Two Breadwinners: Partnership and Divorce8. A Larger Circle of Neighbors: Deindustrialization and the Web of Class, Race, Gender, and LocationConclusionBibliographyIndex