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Introduction
With support from a Women In Curriculum research grant, Pauleena MacDougall, Associate Director of the Maine Folklife Center
assisted by Amy Stevens, graduate student in history conducted a series of oral histories with women who work or used to
work in the pulp and paper industry.
The project began May 1, 2006 and will be completed September 30, 2006.
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his web site has been created in order to facilitate use by students in a variety of classes.
The site includes transcripts and audio recordings of the interviews.
Photos of the workplace and the women interviewed have also been included.
A grant from the Women-in-Curriculum program supported library research, oral history research, the preparation
of materials and the development of this web site.
It is accessible to faculty and students on campus and to the public as well.
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Our research focuses on particular industrial gender issues such as:
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the effect of work on health, pregnancy and childbirth;
- how women learn their jobs;
- obstacles they encountered and sexual harassment;
- the division of labor by gender, vs. gender integration;
- issues of pay equity and advancement.
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We asked questions about clothing women wore to work, stories they may have about the mill
and relations between workers.
Our primary focus is on the expressive culture of the women as we attempt to understand
female culture in an industrial setting. |
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In papermaking, women's jobs were different from men's until the latter part of the twentieth century (late 1960s)
when a few women moved into the higher paid production positions.
However, even then few women worked in production and most were confined to office work.
Women faced a difficult up-hill battle in creating a niche within the in-group.
Moving from clearly defined gender-based jobs to jobs previously designated for men only involved numerous adjustments.
Women faced sexual harassment, lack of facilities geared towards women, low pay and other challenges as they
took new roles in the paper industry.
As they pushed their way into the better-paying positions they developed their own factory culture.
These women's stories illustrate a significant change in industrial culture that took place beginning in the late 1960s.
Not so much held down by a glass ceiling, as held out by a steel door, women were not seeking a rise to management so
much as an opportunity to earn good worker wages with benefits - something previously unavailable to them. |
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Classes in Maine Women, Maine History, Women and Work can make use of the interviews provided on this web page.
The interviews describe the work, the workplace, wages, and workplace health concerns.
Also, the material can be used for a future course in women's folklore and for the folklore in Maine and the
Maritimes courses.
In order to facilitate use by students in a variety of classes, the web page includes both transcripts and
audio recordings of the interviews.
Photos of the workplace and the women interviewed have been included. |
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