Groover Marian The South 1

Marian Groover, who grew up in Sevierville, Tennessee, in the 1950s, began working at the ENKA (BASF) factory in 1968, her first of several jobs in the industrial sector in east Tennessee. She was one of the first women hired at the ALCOA Corporation in Alcoa, Tennessee. Groover has a long history of union activism, especially with the United Steel Workers. In discussing her experiences as a woman entering predominantly male workplaces in the 1970s and 1980s, she describes affirmative action, sexual harassment, maternity leave, and how male co-workers and bosses perceived her and other women. She provides striking analysis of how her position as a working woman informed her understanding of the Women’s movement and feminism.