In his 1964 study, Alienation and Freedom, Robert Blauner explained unexpectedly low levels of alienation among textile workers in terms of family and community attachments and traditionalism. He used gender as a proxy for these unmeasured attitudes. By analyzing 1980 data, this article assesses change in the level of alienation and investigates the relationship between gender and alienation among textile workers through measures of the factors Blauner assumed to explain the relationship. The data indicate increased powerlessness, social isolation, and self-estrangement, although not to high levels. Gender differences that Blauner described in social isolation and self-estrangement have disappeared. Those in powerlessness have persisted but are not explained by nonwork attachments or traditionalism. The latter attitudes, however, are related to alienation, usually in the direction Blauner assumed.
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