Decades of government interventions, an improved infrastructure, and support for industrialization have not resolved problems of persistent poverty in central Appalachia. This paper investigates characteristics of poverty previously overlooked in development initiatives and poverty research. In particular, it demonstrates the role of gender in the social reproduction of poverty in Pike County and Harlan County, Kentucky. Data are drawn from structured interviews with 44 working class women active in two union organizing campaigns in the early 1970s. Analysis, based on qualitative data of lifetime experiences in market and non-market labor, experiences in public schools and manpower training programs, and the structure and operation of households, reveals that different work and school experiences are understood through a "gendered lens." Range of economic opportunity, severely restricted for both sexes in an economy dominated by coal mining, is further limited for females by a gendered division of labor that equates women's work with employment in low-wage occupations or with non-market marginalized labor. Further, female status in households and families often prevents women from acquiring skills and qualifications to compete in highly restricted labor markets. Gender and family structure intersect with rural labor market structure to place women at economic risk, and these structures contribute to persistent poverty in these counties. This report contains 23 references. (Author/SV)