Women, Development, and Communities for Empowerment in Appalachia

Virginia Rinaldo Seitz is Visiting Assistant Professor, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

"This book is a wonderful feminist exploration of a topic not often explored in the feminist literature—working class women in an isolated, rural setting. It pulls together a complex web of perspectives and avoids what is commonly a 'colonizing discourse' on the topic. The Women in Development literature is effectively applied, as is feminist theory (particularly socialist feminism). Major critiques/clarifications are provided of such works as Marx's analysis of capitalism and Buvinic's analysis of community organization. Taking the perspective of these women turns much of our conventional thinking on its head."— Anne Statham, University of Wisconsin-Parkside"The author has produced an excellent study of gender and social change. She has also broadened the audience and impact of the study by comparing the Appalachian region to peripheral zones in developing countries, and drawing heavily (and usefully) on the women and development literature. I also like the methodology. It is an excellent use of in-depth, qualitative life history interviews. The interviews speak strongly and are skillfully woven together around key themes and analysis." — John Gaventa, University of Tennessee

• Acknowledgments 1. Introduction A Story of Gender and Social ChangeThe Research ProjectThe SettingListening to Appalachian WomenWorking Definitions of Central Concepts: MarginalizationEmpowerment Gender and Development Planning 2. Methodology Putting Away the Master's ToolsThe Feminist Standpoint and Women's Life StoriesA Feminist Research ProcessInterviewing WomenData Collection and AnalysisIssues of Reliability and ValidityReporting Conventions 3. Family The Discreet and Lesser SphereWhy Women Act The Intimacies of PlaceJust Like a FamilyOur Kids, Our Lives, Our UnionThe Dark Side of Family LifeChildhood: No Time for InnocenceThe Danger of Being FemaleTeaching the Ideology of GenderMarriage: Nobody to Love MeWith Every BlowMarriage: A Good Calm LifeChildren 4. Work Reverberating SpheresThe Labor of Mothers as DaughtersGoing Out to WorkSchooled to SewThey Went Over to VendingSo Good at Doing You That WayCoalminer DaughtersMaking Ends MeetHomeworkMotherworkIt's Not the Factory 5. Community The Inessential AppalachianThe Failure of Local InstitutionsTrouble with the DoctorListen to my PainThey Don't Have to Live ItIt's Hard to KnowTrying to be With the LawPolitics as UsualGo Home and Make CookiesTo be an Outsider in the SchoolThe Same God of LoveStrategic Essentialism: Nobody Was DifferentThe Appropriation of Symbols: We All Love the Flag Over HereResisting Rutabagas and Rights 6. Creating Communities for Development and Change IntroductionThe Gender Equity Support Group She Voiced What I Felt An Income-Generating Cooperative And Then I Sew Public WorkCoal Employment Project Just a Couple of Women 7. Class, Gender and Resistance in the Coalfields; The Family Auxiliary IntroductionWe Could Do a Whole Lot Down Here!It Really Put the Radical In UsIt Keeps on Growing and GrowingFor All the Other PeopleWe Want to Pass it AlongThe Biggest and Best People's Organization 8. Community Development Empowerment: Dungannon Development Commission and Ivanhoe Civic League IntroductionDungannon Development Commission The Taste of SuccessA Cooperative Sewing IndustryIt was Hot!MisbehavingThe Failure of SuccessThat Way is Not What We're Talking About! Ivanhoe Civic League I've Never Seen Anything Like ThisBuilding BridgesReversals in LearningPlanning Our DestinyCreative Misbehavior: Using Outsiders for Mutual BenefitJubileeFrom the Practical to the Strategic' 9. Alternative Visions IntroductionTrickle-up RevolutionsDivergent UnderstandingsWomen's CommunitiesGender Planning for EmpowermentBuilding a ChangeConclusions NotesBibliographyIndex