We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
Coal, Identity, and the Gendering of Environmental Justice Activism in Central Appalachia.
- Authors
Bell, Shannon Elizabeth; Braun, Yvonne A.
- Abstract
Women generally initiate, lead, and constitute the rank and file of environmental justice activism. However, there is little research on why there are comparatively so few men involved in these movements. Using the environmental justice movement in the Central Appalachian coalfields as a case study, we examine the ways that environmental justice activism is gendered, with a focus on how women’s and men’s identities both shape and constrain their involvement in gendered ways. The analysis relies on 20 interviews with women and men grassroots activists working for environmental justice in the coalfields of Appalachia. We find that women draw on their identities as “mothers” and “Appalachians” to justify their activism, while the hegemonic masculinity of the region, which is tied to the coal industry, has the opposite effect on men, deterring their movement involvement. We explore the implications of these findings for understanding the relationship of gender to environmental justice activism.
- Subjects
APPALACHIAN Region; GENDER; ENVIRONMENTAL justice; WOMEN political activists; SOCIAL movements; COALFIELDS
- Publication
Gender & Society, 2010, Vol 24, Issue 6, p794
- ISSN
0891-2432
- Publication type
Case Study
- DOI
10.1177/0891243210387277