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Preface There is a cynical saying that runs around Hollywood as the award sea- sons (Academy or Emmy) arrive that goes something like this: To win an award, an actress has to play a prostitute or a stripper—or a nun. It can also be explained as if wins only come from characters who require too much makeup or none at all. Since this book focuses on films—and females—who have influenced American history, the range of occupations that exists in these films is quite a bit larger. In these films, you will find miners’ wives and (yes, a couple of non-makeup wearing) “monsters,” soldiers, and sci- entists, activists and immigrants, and two (count ‘em—two) lawyers—one who essentially ignited the MeToo Movement and one who is the reason we use the word “gender” and not “sex” in legal matters. In chapter one, Rosanne Welch introduces readers to a film unique in that some film historians call it the only blacklisted American movie. Salt of the Earth (1954) dramatizes a real strike by Mexican American men of the International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers in New Mexico. They wanted equal pay to their white miner counterparts. Thwarted legally by their employer and forbidden to picket, their wives recognized a loop- hole in the contract and took their husbands’ places on the picket line. That real-life decision forced the men to cook and care for their own children, which challenged gender roles and brought the message of the strike into their hearts. Chapter two covers another union-focused film, Norma Rae (1979). Based lightly on the real life of North Carolina mill worker Crystal Lee Jordan, the Academy Award–winning Norma Rae tells the story of a female union organizer in the textile world. Best known for the visual of star Sally Field standing on a table defiantly holding up a sign with “Union” scrawled