Modern America
Women's History
Labor History
Appalachian History
History of Capitalism

Faculty Advisors

Jason Morgan Ward
Allen Tullos

Biography

My research examines the professionalization of women’s care labor in central Appalachia from 1968 to 2000. I trace the development of women’s labor from unpaid work in the home and in activist spaces, to women miners’ experiences advocating for gender policies in the coal industry, and finally to jobs defined by care, including education, healthcare, and childcare.This evolution of women’s work tracks alongside a change in the region’s economy and workforce. As a result, my research argues that women’s labor, vital and largely unpaid in the industrial economy in the early 20th century, became central to the region’s post-industrial economic landscape.