We Learned to Be Fierce

About this artwork Barbara Kingsolver’s very first book, Holding the Line, tells the stories of the women who helped to hold the strike line from 1983-1986 at the Phelps Dodge Morenci Mine. I have been researching stories of women who exercised their power and were transformed by their experiences; I thought the story of the Morenci Miners Women’s Auxiliary and their role in that period’s copper strike was worth revisiting. The few women who worked in jobs in the mine prior to the strike endured predatory sexual harassment, terribly dangerous working conditions, and highly inadequate safety equipment, yet they persisted. In 1983 after the strike began, members of the women’s auxiliary – who had previously played a supporting role in strikes – started to take a more active role. Those women held the strike line when the courts limited the number of strikers who were allowed on the line. All the picketers, including those women, were harassed, attacked and stalked, but they gave as good