PROTEST ENGENDERED - THE PARTICIPATION OF WOMEN STEELWORKERS IN THE WHEELING-PITTSBURGH STEEL STRIKE OF 1985

This article examines the participation of women in the 1985 labor str ike at Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel. The author views the strike as a dee ply gendered act of protest where the issues, strategies, tactics, and resources used by women workers differ from those used by men, and si multaneously as the occupational site that provided workers an opportu nity to affirm, to modify, and to contest their understandings of gend er Paradoxically, women both challenge and conform to normative gender scripts for protest. They resisted the efforts of men to impose a gen der division of labor and sought to mobilize the community in support of the strike.