The Girls are Coming
- ISBN-10
- 0873513762
- ISBN-13
- 9780873513760
- Category
- Biography & Autobiography
- Pages
- 203
- Language
- English
- Published
- 1999
- Publisher
- Midwest Reflections
- Author
- Peggie Carlson
Description
In 1974, lured by good wages, a 22-year-old African American college student from suburbia started work as a pipefitter trainee for a utility company, one of the first women to break into this male-dominated world. Can women be trained to do men's work? According to Carlson, this unspoken question lurked in the minds of the male workers at a Minnesota natural gas company called Minnegasco when four women were hired in compliance with the Equal Employment Opportunity Act in 1974. One of the women, a 22-year-old African-American college student at the time, has now written an account of her experiences that supports her contention that her male co-workers' antagonism stemmed from sexism rather than racism. In fact, Carlson gave up her first company job as a meter reader because a black male employee schemed to make her life as difficult as possible. Trained as a pipe fitter instead, she describes the experiences, both good and bad, that she and a fellow female worker shared in fitting into a male environment. The author of a children's book (The Canning Season), Carlson writes with assurance, although the episodic narrative makes for a somewhat disjointed read. The anecdotes rely heavily on exact conversations between workers, but since the journals Carlson kept during this period were accidentally thrown away, the dialogue may be more accurate in spirit than verbatim. Despite the offensive jokes and unwelcome sexual advances she endured, Carlson became very fond of some of her supervisors and colleagues, who came to respect her ability to do her job. She dropped out of college and continued to work for 11 more years at Minnegasco, where she met her future husband.
Get the book
Similar books
-
The Lost Founding Father: John Quincy Adams and the Transformation of American Politics
By William J. CooperA middle-aged widower, Eaton had recently married Margaret O'Neale Timberlake, the daughter of a Washington tavern keeper. Her first marriage had been to a ...
-
Jesse James was His Name: Or, Fact and Fiction Concerning the Careers of the Notorious James Brothers of Missouri
By William A. Settle10 When the funeral party reached Kearney she cried out to Sheriff Timberlake , " Oh , Mr. Timberlake , my son has gone to God , but his friends still live ...
-
The Age of Jackson and the Art of American Power, 1815-1848
By William R. NesterLt. John Timberlake was smitten, talked her into marrying him, and then was forced to leave his bride for an extended naval voyage.
-
Joan Crawford: The Essential Biography
By Lawrence J. Quirk, William SchoellThe supporting cast, including Lionel Barrymore as Jackson, Tone as Eaton, Robert Taylor as Timberlake, and James Stewart as another persistent suitor, ...
-
Conversations with William Faulkner
By M. Thomas IngeStudent assistant Corrie E. Ward and faculty secretaries Nina Wells and Susan G. Timberlake provided invaluable assistance .
-
Memoirs and Selected Letters: Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant, Selected Letters 1839-1865
By Ulysses S. GrantKroper Priate WAZ e Hale curie Tarner Zur National Forces . ... N. MICHLER , nie22 Ernest 2 Maj . of Engineers , M.Guna Timberlake Wins Zone For HRJohnson ...
-
Inventing Loreta Velasquez: Confederate Soldier Impersonator, Media Celebrity, and Con Artist
By William C. DavisAccording to Robert E. L. Krick of Richmond in an e-mail message, the only likely candidates ... the prison adjutant, and a clerk known only as Timberlake.
-
William Shakespeare: A Textual Companion
By Stanley Wells, Gary Taylor, William MontgomeryEdward A. Bloom ( 1964 ) ; revised in Muir , Shakespeare the Professional ( 1973 ) ... A. W. Pollard ( 1923 ) , 57-112 Timberlake , Philip W. , The Feminine ...
-
The Age of Jackson and the Art of American Power, 1815-1848
By William NesterRichard Timberlake, 7746 Origins of Central Banking in the United States ... 1820, in Thomas Jefferson, 7726 Selected I/Vritings of 7740mas]e erson, ed.
-
Escape: A Memoir
By Carolyn Jessop, Laura PalmerWe'd picked the green tomatoes just before the frost and let them ripen in buckets. Every day we'd sort through them looking for some that were ripe enough ...