Gender, Solidarity, and Symbolic Capital

Abstract

This chapter considers the significance of prominent women's leadership in the movement to stop mountaintop removal. The prominence of women in leadership positions is a signature characteristic of Appalachian community activism, including the CRMW and the Friends of the Mountains (FOM) networks. However, the role of women is related to the decline of the union and the shifting sites of organizing within the community. Though women have always been active in social issues in the coalfields, the union's historically dominant role in organizing activism limited women's ability to rise to leadership positions. Organizing outside of the union affords women greater flexibility to link together social issues that a labor perspective may not have addressed directly. As such, women are able to forge a more comprehensive approach to social justice built upon different symbolic capital foundations.