Question

Women in the Mine
JESSICA SMITH ROLSTON
Summary This article details the unique and complex gender roles that have developed in the coal mines in Wyoming's Powder River Basin. Typically thought of as full of stereotypically ultra macho men, the coal mines in Wyoming disprove this assumption. In addition to being comprised mostly of family men, women work alongside men as equalsin numbers greater than in the industry as a wholein nearly every capacity. Women miners have developed ways to build rapport with male coworkers that ensure that they are treated with respect. This article details this complex system.
The Powder River Basin is home to a dozen coal mines that were opened in response to the energy crisis of the mid-1970s and early 1980s. Many women in the area had grown up riding horses, fishing, hunting, or working on farms and ranches, and were quite comfortable getting dirty and doing manual labor. Mining seemed a natural fit, and offered high pay for those without a college education. Females employed by the mines can make between $65,000 and $100,000, depending on experience and overtime.
In addition to having to learn the ins and outs of a new industry, women had to learn how to succeed in a traditionally male environment. They have done so by adjusting their identities and taking on personas at work in order to gain respect and craft camaraderie with male coworkers. Common labels like tomboy, lady, girly girl, and bitch have developed very specific connotations; these personas represent specific gender identities that bring a range of emotionsfrom respect to disdain to disapprovalfrom coworkers. Smith Rolston details how the persona a woman chooses at the mine can have far reaching implications and how adopting a single persona is not enough; women in the mines must constantly and strategically adjust their personas to fit the situation, potentially changing identity mid-conversation, mid-shift, or at any time to respond appropriately to their male coworkers' notions of femininity.
In the social universe of the mine, the term "lady" generally has a negative connotation.

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