Pine resin in their veins : women and the East Texas timber products industry, 1935-1975

Abstract

Since the late nineteenth-century, one of the most important industries to East Texas has been timber. Several studies have examined the timber industry during the boom years from 1890 to the 1920s as well as the labor practices those companies employed. None, however, has examined the role of women inside of timber products plants. Beginning in the 1930s, women entered the timber products industry as industrial workers. Their numbers increased with World War II, and timber companies retained their female industrial workforce after the end of the war due to a labor shortage, women's lower wages, and the lack of a strong masculine identity tied to timber. Far from cooperating in a new gender-line-breaking experiment, however, this study argues that the companies needed women's employment to lower their costs, and women in East Texas needed the positions due to a lack of other suitable jobs in the area.