Women and Men in an Energy Boomtown: Adjustment, Alienation and Adaptation.

Existing literature on energy boomtowns includes numerous statements that women are more severely "impacted" than men (if the same communities. It is possible to draw hypothesis from other literatures. however, that imply that women may do less poorly than men, or even that the women may do less poorly than men, or even that the women could benefit from rapid growth. The present paper examines data on social integration, alienation, and overall social-psychological adjustment from a sample of four western Colorado energy communities, one of which has become a boomtown. the paper finds very little support for the proposition that the women would perceive themselves as being more negatively affected than the men of the boomtown: nor, however, does it discover evidence that the energy boom has led to a net personal benefit for the women. The boomtown women were highly unlikely to receive a direct economic benefit from development, and the data from one scale total suggest that the hypothesis of negative impacts among newcomer women (as well as among newcomer men) may deserve further attention. Particularly among long-time residents, however, the present study's data suggest that women may actually be adapting more successfully to boomtown living than are men. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]