Threads of Solidarity: Women in South African Industry, 1900-1980

by Iris Berger

Overview

" . . . enables us to deepen our understanding of the organization of working women." —International Journal of African Historical Studies

" . . . an impressive piece of scholarship." —American Journal of Sociology

Virtually ignored by labor historians are the black and white women in South African industries. Drawing on comparative labor history and feminist theory, this important study traces the history of women as industrial workers and trade unionists in South Africa during most of the twentieth century.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780253207005
Publisher:	Indiana University Press
Publication date:	04/22/1992
Pages:	384
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.25(h) x (d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

IRIS BERGER is Associate Professor of History, African Studies, and Women's Studies and Director of the Institute for Research on Women at the State University of New York at Albany. She is author of the award-winning book Religion and Resistance: East African Kingdoms in the Precolonial Period and co-editor (with Claire Robertson) of Women and Class in Africa.

Table of Contents

PREFACE
ABBREVIATIONS

I. GENDER AND INDUSTRIALIZATION
1. Gender, Community, and Working-Class History
2. Dependency and Domesticity: Women's Wage Labor, 1900-1925

II. WOMEN IN THE NEW INDUSTRIAL UNIONS
3. Patterns of Women's Labor, 1925-1940
4. Daughters of the Depression
5. Commandos of Working Women
6. A Lengthening Thread

III. A NEW WORKING CLASS AND THE CHALLENGE OF DEVERSITY
7. Nimble Fingers and Keen Eysight: Women in Wartime Production
8. A New Working Class, 1940-1960
9.Solidarity Fragmented: Garment Workers in the Transvaal
10. Food and Canning Workers at the Cape: The Structure of Gender and Race
11. Standing United
12. Never Far from Home: Family, Community, and Working Women

IV.DECENTRALIZATION AND THE RISE OF INDEPENDENT UNIONS
13. City and Periphery, 1960-1980
14. Repression and Resistance
Epilogue: Common Threads, Past and Present

Notes
Documentary Sources and Interviews
Index
Illustrations precede Chapter 8

Editorial Reviews

This study of the long-neglected category of working-class women focuses on the virtually ignored black and white women in South African industries. Drawing on comparative labor history and feminist theory, Berger traces the history of women as industrial workers and trade unionists in South Africa during most of the 20th century. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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