Baltimore’s Wives of Steel: Using Gender and Race to Understand Steelworkers’ Communities

The Women’s Studies Department invites you to attend Dr. Karen Olson’s “Wives of Steel: Using Gender and Race to Understand Steelworkers’ Communities.” The presentation will be held in room 007 of Linthicum Hall, Thursday, April 20th, from 3:30 to 5:00pm. All are invited. Refreshments will be served.
Dr. Karen Olson, author of “Wives of Steel: Voices of Women from the Sparrows Point Steelmaking Communities” (Penn State Press, 2005), is Professor of History and Anthropology at the Community College of Baltimore County (Dundalk). Her book is based on 80 formal interviews conducted over 15 years with women and some men, both white and black, and all connected to the Sparrows Point Bethlehem Steel mill in Baltimore County. Rich in ethnographic data, addressing issues of race and gender as well as class, Olson’s analysis shows how a male-dominated industry has influenced personal, family, and social experiences over several generations. The book has been called “a compelling and sure-to-be-noticed contribution to a very rich and lively literature on the community experience of deindustrialization.”