Breadwinning, Equity, and Solidarity: Labor Feminism in Oregon, 1945–1970

Abstract

Laurie Mercier documents influential women in Oregon’s labor movement between 1945 and 1970 and how their work at the state level intersected with national movements. According to Mercier, “union leaderships’ fixed belief in labor hierarchy reflected the stubborn ideology of the white male breadwinner,” and unions in the Pacific Northwest “emphasized physical strength and masculine solidarity in their defense of sex-segregated work.” As a result, little has been written about working-class women’s grassroot efforts following World War II to employ multi-pronged strategies for workplace reforms. In this research article, Mercier sheds light on some of those women and how their efforts helped shape a growing feminist movement that “accelerated the rate of change in working women’s lives.”