In defence of home and hearth? Families, friendships and feminism in mining communities[1]

Abstract

This article examines some of the effects of the 1984–1985 coal dispute on the lives of women in four mining localities. It challenges some of the dominant stereotypes of mining communities and gender relations within them produced by social scientists, including some feminists, and by the media. Using the findings from interviews with women in 1986 it makes visible the ‘inactive’ majority and argues that the concepts of activism, politics and feminism need to be reconsidered and broadened if they are to be useful for understanding women's lives. Changes in consciousness during the dispute were not confined to those women who were active outside home and family. Changes were due in part to experiences in 1984–1985, but also to broader economic restructuring and decline which are still going on.

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