Female involvement in the miners' strike 1984-1985: Trajectories of activism

Spence, Jean and Stephenson, Carol (2007) Female involvement in the miners' strike 1984-1985: Trajectories of activism. Sociological Research Online, 12 (1). ISSN 1360 7804

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Abstract

This paper is based on recent primary research interviews with women who were active in the 1984-1985 miners' strike. The paper claims that one depiction of women's engagement in the strike has been privileged above others: activist women were miners' wives who embarked on a linear passage from domesticity and political passivity into politicisation and then retreated from political engagement following the defeat. This depiction is based on a masculinist view which sees political action as organisationally based and which fails to recognise the importance of small scale and emotional political work which women did and continue to undertake within their communities. In reality many women were politically active and aware prior to the dispute though not necessarily in a traditional sense. Women's activism is characterised by continuity: those women who have maintained activism were likely to have been socially and/or politically active prior to the dispute.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Masculine understandings of female activism, miners' strike
Subjects:	L300 Sociology V300 History by topic
Department:	Faculties > Health and Life Sciences > Nursing, Midwifery and Health
Depositing User:	Becky Skoyles
Date Deposited:	29 Jan 2015 14:46
Last Modified:	12 Oct 2019 15:26
URI:	http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/20105

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