Standing Our Ground — 2012 ·

Women, Environmental Justice, and the Fight to End Mountaintop Removal

By Joyce M. Barry

“What a magnificent book! The author skillfully weaves theoretical discussions into a fast-paced narrative. Standing Our Ground is well written, well researched, and on solid theoretical ground. The book offers a unique lens: coal is a highly masculinized world, and Barry opens up a view of women’s roles and activism inside this world, which is often closed to outsiders.”

Joni Seager — author of Gender, Poverty, and the Environment

Standing Our Ground: Women, Environmental Justice, and the Fight to End Mountaintop Removal examines women’s efforts to end mountaintop removal coal mining in West Virginia. Mountaintop removal coal mining, which involves demolishing the tops of hills and mountains to provide access to coal seams, is one of the most significant environmental threats in Appalachia, where it is most commonly practiced.

The Appalachian women featured in Barry’s book have firsthand experience with the negative impacts of Big Coal in West Virginia. Through their work in organizations such as the Coal River Mountain Watch and the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, they fight to save their mountain communities by promoting the development of alternative energy resources. Barry’s engaging and original work reveals how women’s tireless organizing efforts have made mountaintop removal a global political and environmental issue and laid the groundwork for a robust environmental justice movement in central Appalachia.

Joyce M. Barry is a visiting assistant professor of women’s studies at Hamilton College. Her work has received support from the National Endowment for the Humanities and has appeared in such national publications as Women’s Studies Quarterly, Environmental Justice, Environmental Ethics, and the National Women’s Studies Association Journal. Barry grew up in West Virginia’s southern coalfields, and now resides in Clinton, New York.