| By Jane LaTour |
| Working Women Organizing for Equality in New York City |
| Author, In Pursuit of Equity |
| Photo by Clarence Elie-Rivera |
| Pioneering Tennis Pro |
| Praise for Sisters in the Brotherhoods |
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| Pioneering Carpenter |
| Sisters in the Brotherhoods |
| Author, Irish Titan, Irish Toilers |
| Plaintiff, Boylan v New York Times |
| Department of History, Purdue University Movement |
| Author, Freedom is Not Enough |
"LaTour rips aside the bromides of superficial victories to explore the punishing
ordeals of female pioneers in male dominated industries . . . What makes the
interviews so compelling is the author's own on-the-job experience in a series of blue
collar occupations and academic positions. The camaraderie makes her questions
harder in substance by more sensitive in the asking."
ordeals of female pioneers in male dominated industries . . . What makes the
interviews so compelling is the author's own on-the-job experience in a series of blue
collar occupations and academic positions. The camaraderie makes her questions
harder in substance by more sensitive in the asking."
"Jane LaTour's book.is a great reminder that when we have equal opportunities in
every line of work we thrive. When women change the way work is done, they make
lasting change in the culture of the workplace."
every line of work we thrive. When women change the way work is done, they make
lasting change in the culture of the workplace."
"Sisters in the Brotherhoods is one of the most exciting books that I've read in years.
It is nothing less than a history of the late twentieth century movement of women into
non-traditional jobs as recalled by and through the voices of the women who
opened the doors. Jane Latour seamlessly melds the aspirations, experiences, doubts
and achievements of the courageous women who earned their livings in trades
reserved for men into a persuasive analysis of generational change. Every young
woman should read this resonant and moving book."
It is nothing less than a history of the late twentieth century movement of women into
non-traditional jobs as recalled by and through the voices of the women who
opened the doors. Jane Latour seamlessly melds the aspirations, experiences, doubts
and achievements of the courageous women who earned their livings in trades
reserved for men into a persuasive analysis of generational change. Every young
woman should read this resonant and moving book."
| In Pursuit of Equity: Women, Men, and the Quest for Economic Citizenship in Twentieth Century America |
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| from |
| "Jane LaTour tells the history of the tradeswomen movement by focusing on events in New York City. She captures the real lives of tradeswomen through stories that are poignant, raw, and uplifting. It brought back to me the frustration of trying to engage the Women's Movement in seeing tradeswomen as more than role models for our daughters. In our sex-segregated economy tradeswomen are on the front line in the battle for economic justice." |
| harrowing forms of harassment and intimidation, the women whose oral histories form the moving book sought to challenge and reform the heart of this compelling andsystem. Reform could be incredibly hard and scary work; it took one woman fourteen years to find the courage to speak at her own local. But they did speak out and by their individual and collective efforts, they organized women |
| "In Sisters in the Brotherhoods, Jane LaTour draws on extensive interviews and oral histories with women who broke into the building trades in New York City over the last several decades. The interviews are enormously rich sources, filled with stunning stories of male resistance, abuse, and hostility toward the integration of women and equally stirring tales of women's determination to survive this treatment. Even as they were subjected to various hair-raising and |
| "This is a bitter tale of courage, told for the first time. In the words of the women themselves, we hear the gut-wrenching experiences of pioneers who toughed their way into apprenticeships and on to strenuous blue-collar jobs that civil rights laws in the 1970s were designed to open to them. "These women, mostly without allies, learned a cruel lesson: you could fight to cling to the job that would support a family, but you could not at the same time fight the hostility of the shop steward, the connivance of the union with the contractor. ________ Betsy Wade is the former president of Local 3, Newspaper Guild of New York |
and sympathetic men and empowered them to fight for their rights. Sisters in the Brotherhoods
illuminates an aspect of women's and labor history that has been understudied and overlooked. In the
women's challenge to existing union arrangements and their own deployment of labor movement
principles and practices to achieve their ends lies a fundamental contradiction of post-World War II
labor history. Jane LaTour's book compels a reassessment and revision of the view of post-World
War II unions as inimical to working women's interests and as vehicles for conservatism rather than
progressive change."
illuminates an aspect of women's and labor history that has been understudied and overlooked. In the
women's challenge to existing union arrangements and their own deployment of labor movement
principles and practices to achieve their ends lies a fundamental contradiction of post-World War II
labor history. Jane LaTour's book compels a reassessment and revision of the view of post-World
War II unions as inimical to working women's interests and as vehicles for conservatism rather than
progressive change."
| "Sisters in the Brotherhoods profiles the indomitable women who fought their way into some of the best-defended male monopolies in the U.S. labor force: the skilled trades of New York City. |
| Jane LaTour's engaging oral histories reveal the diverse routes women traveled to claim these jobs, the alliances that sustained them, and the strategies they developed to master their crafts in the face of employer hostility, co-worker harassment, union corruption, and a government that all but abandoned them in the 1980s. Tradeswomen, feminists, labor and civil rights activists, historians, and social scientists will all find wisdom and inspiration in these pages." |
| Nancy MacLean's books : |
are available from: |
| Freedom Is Not Enough: The Opening of the American Workplace |
| The American Women’s Movement, 1945- 2000: A Brief History with Documents |
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| from |
| This page is hosted by The Anglican Examiner Copyright by Donn Mitchell, 2009 |