Description
Book SynopsisEllen Israel Rosen presents a compelling portrait of married women who work on New England's assembly lines while they also maintain their homes and marriages. With skill and sympathy, she documents the reasons these women work; their experiences on the job, in the union, and at home; the sources of their job satisfaction; and their management of the double day. The major issue for this segment of the labor force, Rosen suggests, is not whether to work, but the availability and quality of jobs. Rosen argues that deindustrializationplant closings and job displacementconfronts blue-collar women factory workers with a bitter choice between work at lower and lower wages or no work at all. Drawing on quantitative and qualitative data from interviews with more than two hundred such women factory workers, Rosen traces the ways in which women who do unskilled factory work have gained in self-esteem as well as financial stability from holding paid jobs. Throughout, Rosen explores the relationsh
