Striking Beauties

Women Apparel Workers in the U.S. South, 1930-2000

Nonfiction, Social & Cultural Studies, Political Science, Politics, Labour & Industrial Relations, Social Science, Gender Studies, Women&, History, Americas, United States, 20th Century
Cover of the book Striking Beauties by Michelle Haberland, University of Georgia Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Michelle Haberland ISBN: 9780820347547
Publisher: University of Georgia Press Publication: March 1, 2015
Imprint: University of Georgia Press Language: English
Author: Michelle Haberland
ISBN: 9780820347547
Publisher: University of Georgia Press
Publication: March 1, 2015
Imprint: University of Georgia Press
Language: English

Apparel manufacturing in the American South, by virtue of its size, its reliance upon female labor, and its broad geographic scope, is an important but often overlooked industry that connects the disparate concerns of women’s history, southern cultural history, and labor history. In Striking Beauties, Michelle Haberland examines its essential features and the varied experiences of its workers during the industry’s great expansion from the late 1930s through the demise of its southern branch at the end of the twentieth century.

The popular conception of the early twentieth-century South as largely agrarian informs many histories of industry and labor in the United States. But as Haberland demonstrates, the apparel industry became a key part of the southern economy after the Great Depression and a major driver of southern industrialization. The gender and racial composition of the workforce, the growth of trade unions, technology, and capital investment were all powerful forces in apparel’s migration south. Yet those same forces also revealed the tensions caused by racial and gender inequities not only in the region but in the nation at large. Striking Beauties places the struggles of working women for racial and economic justice in the larger context of southern history. The role of women as the primary consumers of the family placed them in a critical position to influence the success or failure of boycotts, union label programs and ultimately solidarity.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

Apparel manufacturing in the American South, by virtue of its size, its reliance upon female labor, and its broad geographic scope, is an important but often overlooked industry that connects the disparate concerns of women’s history, southern cultural history, and labor history. In Striking Beauties, Michelle Haberland examines its essential features and the varied experiences of its workers during the industry’s great expansion from the late 1930s through the demise of its southern branch at the end of the twentieth century.

The popular conception of the early twentieth-century South as largely agrarian informs many histories of industry and labor in the United States. But as Haberland demonstrates, the apparel industry became a key part of the southern economy after the Great Depression and a major driver of southern industrialization. The gender and racial composition of the workforce, the growth of trade unions, technology, and capital investment were all powerful forces in apparel’s migration south. Yet those same forces also revealed the tensions caused by racial and gender inequities not only in the region but in the nation at large. Striking Beauties places the struggles of working women for racial and economic justice in the larger context of southern history. The role of women as the primary consumers of the family placed them in a critical position to influence the success or failure of boycotts, union label programs and ultimately solidarity.

More books from University of Georgia Press

Cover of the book Drowning Lessons by Michelle Haberland
Cover of the book The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle by Michelle Haberland
Cover of the book A Field Guide for Immersion Writing by Michelle Haberland
Cover of the book A Curse upon the Nation by Michelle Haberland
Cover of the book A Late Encounter with the Civil War by Michelle Haberland
Cover of the book Visible Man by Michelle Haberland
Cover of the book Justice Leah Ward Sears by Michelle Haberland
Cover of the book Increase by Michelle Haberland
Cover of the book Chattooga by Michelle Haberland
Cover of the book Compression Scars by Michelle Haberland
Cover of the book South Carolina Women by Michelle Haberland
Cover of the book Norm Diffusion and HIV/AIDS Governance in Putin's Russia and Mbeki's South Africa by Michelle Haberland
Cover of the book The Muses Among Us by Michelle Haberland
Cover of the book Revolting New York by Michelle Haberland
Cover of the book Daring to Write by Michelle Haberland
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy