Talkin' Union tells the groundbreaking history of Texas women pecan shellers and garment workers who organized for economic and social equality in the '30s. Researchers with People's History in Texas relied on first-hand oral histories and extensive archival research to bring this story to life in 1979. Their material had limited distribution and is published with a 2019 introduction making this history available to a new generation. The Pecan Shellers Strike is now acknowledged as an historic mass movement and the foundation for Hispanic organizing for a generation. The Texas garment workers who organized in the '30s with the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union have never received the attention they deserve. Essays from 1979 about African American women and Chicanas in the Texas workforce capture the beginning of a sea change in women's workforce participation that would soon transform women's lives, family dynamics, and the U.S. economy.

"This is social history at its very best...The wide selection of firsthand accounts found in this text draw the reader in, and most are absolutely fascinating...This volume will make a significant contribution to the field of Texas women's history, and I predict it will be the one book to which scholars and the reading public turn for information on twentieth-century Texas women."-Elizabeth Hayes Turner, Professor of History, University of North Texas Texas Women broke barriers throughout the twentieth century, winning the right to vote, expanding their access to higher education, entering new professions, participating fully in civic and political life, and planning their families. Yet these major achievements have hardly been recognized in histories of twentieth-century Texas. By contrast, Texas Through Women's Eyes offers a fascinating overview of women's experiences and achievements in the twentieth century, with an inclusive focus on rural women, working-class women, and women of color. Judith N. McArthur and Harold L. Smith trace the history of Texas women through four eras. They discuss how women entered the public sphere to work for social reforms and the right to vote during the Progressive era (1900-1920); how they continued working for reform and social justice and for greater opportunities in education and the workforce during the Great Depression and World War II (1920-1945); how African American and Mexican American women fought for labor and civil rights while Anglo women laid the foundation for two-party politics during the postwar years (1945-1965); and how second-wave feminists (1965-2000) promoted diverse and sometimes competing goals, including passage of the Equal Rights Amendment, reproductive freedom, gender equity in sports, and the rise of the New Right and the Republican party. The authors take particular account of the interactions between genders and the hierarchies of race and ethnicity as they synthesize information from published histories with their own original research into women's lives. They also include a wealth of first-person accountsùwomen's letters, memoirs, and oral histories. This lively combination will appeal to a wide audience.

This book is about the other Texas, not the state known for its cowboy conservatism, but a mid-twentieth-century hotbed of community organizing, liberal politics, and civil rights activism. Beginning in the 1930s, Max Krochmal tells the story of the decades-long struggle for democracy in Texas, when African American, Mexican American, and white labor and community activists gradually came together to empower the state's marginalized minorities. At the ballot box and in the streets, these diverse activists demanded not only integration but economic justice, labor rights, and real political power for all. Their efforts gave rise to the Democratic Coalition of the 1960s, a militant, multiracial alliance that would take on and eventually overthrow both Jim Crow and Juan Crow. Using rare archival sources and original oral history interviews, Krochmal reveals the often-overlooked democratic foundations and liberal tradition of one of our nation's most conservative states. Blue Texas remembers the many forgotten activists who, by crossing racial lines and building coalitions, democratized their cities and state to a degree that would have been unimaginable just a decade earlier--and it shows why their story still matters today.

A journal of women studies.

Provides citations to books, journal articles, manuscripts, oral histories, dissertations, and theses on Texas women's history.

Voice Lessons explores the rich personal and political terrain of Alice Embree, a 1960s activist and convert to the women’s liberation movement of the 1970s, bringing a woman’s perspective to a transformational time in US history. This riveting memoir traces the author’s roots in segregated Austin and her participation in efforts to integrate the University of Texas. It follows her antiwar activism from a vigil in front of President Lyndon Johnson’s ranch in 1965 to a massive protest after the shootings at Kent State in 1970. Embree’s activism brought her and the Students for a Democratic Society into conflict with Frank Erwin, the powerful chairman of the UT Board of Regents, and inspired a campus free speech movement. She recounts her experiences living in New York during the tumultuous years of 1968 and 1969, including the Columbia University strike and the Woodstock music festival. She also tells about protesting at the Chicago Democratic Convention, her interactions with Yippies and poets, and her travels to Chile, Cuba, and Mexico. Embree highlights the radical roots of the women’s liberation movement in Austin and the audacious women’s community that challenged gender roles, fought for reproductive justice, and inspired a lifetime of activism.

"An attempt to show what sort of materials are accessible within the state for researchers in Texas women's history."--The preface

When the need for telephone operators arose in the 1870s, the assumption was that they should all be male. Wages for adult men were too high, so boys were hired. They proved quick to argue with the subscribers, so females replaced them. Women were calmer, had reassuring voices and rarely talked back. Within a few years, telephone operators were all female and would remain so. The pay was low and working conditions harsh. The job often impaired their health, as they suffered abuse from subscribers in silence under pain of dismissal. Discipline was stern--dress codes were mandated, although they were never seen by the public. Most were young, domestic and anything but militant. Yet many joined unions and walked picket lines in response to the severely capitalistic, sexist system they worked under.