4.4 Women's roles during and after the Miners' Strike 1984/85
4.4.2 Women's words and women's roles
4.4.2.1 Topics. or What they had to say
4.4.3 Was it all over - when it was over ?
4.4.4 The future - Back into oblivion ?
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In order to assess women's roles and the way women see themselves during and after the strike it is necessary to find criteria which help to judge whether there have been lasting changes at all and of what kind and extent those changes are. Because of the short time since the strike it is not easy to get enough objective data like statistical material or even primary documents. Therefore mostly statements by people involved will be analysed. Statements by other people will only additionally be considered.
Roles people play in their respective surroundings (here the miners' families and the mining-communities) are not entirely observable and describable - they are also manifest in people's attitudes, values, opinions, and beliefs. These can be recorded only through long-term studies or in personal documents. Personal documents' crucial advantage is "that it provides an interpretation of life as lived in a setting very different from that of a university (and indeed very different from that within the experience of {too} many people within universities). " (M. Bulmer, 1972 ??: iii). Robert E. Park described the value of personal documents even more vividly. He talked of a "blindness each of us is likely to have for the meaning of other people's lives. At any rate what sociologists most need to know is what goes on behind the faces of men, what it is that makes life for each of us full or thrilling. . . Otherwise we do not know the world in which we actually live. " (R. E. Park: vi-vii; quoted in M. Bulmer, 1972 ??: iii). Personal documents allow insight into areas of human life which otherwise remain inaccessible to outsiders. According to Martin Bulmer one has to obtain reliable data in order to meet scientific requirements. Bulmer: ". . . there is some evidence that people do recall fairly clearly the main events in which they themselves were personally involved, and which are part of their own biography. " (M. Bulmer, 1972 ??: v). Secondly the representativeness of the data has to be guaranteed. "This is unlikely to be satisfied in any single personal document, and the best safeguard is the comparison of several documents from different points of view on the same problem. " (M. Bulmer, 1972 ??: v).
Similar documents and additional statements from outsiders have to be used as well in order to qualify the interpretations of individual people: personal opinions, values, and beliefs can thus be assumed to be generally valid for the mining-communities.
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Looking at the mining-communities it should be clear that women's roles are umbilically linked with men: their position in the home, in the community, or in political organisations. Therefore it is not insignificant to know if and to what extent men were able and willing to tolerate or even to make women's changes possible and support them. After all men had to give up part of their power - at home and in the community.
This chapter will look at how men saw women's activities and women's roles in the strike. Their attitudes become visible in these areas: The union's and the Labour Party's attitudes towards the women and at home.
The union and the women
With the emergence of the Women's Support Groups and the extension of their activities to other areas than providing food, the miners' union had to accept that the women were taking over responsibilities and tasks previously handled by the union. Ann Suddick remarked that "'it was initially difficult to get the men to accept that we were part of the strike. '" (B. Campbell, 1986: 269). So there was opposition against the women and therefore they had to fight on two fronts: To fight for their communities they had to fight the men as well. The NUM's resistance took various forms. On the one hand it tried to hinder the women's work: The women often met with opposition when they attempted to co-operate with the union. Florence Anderson reported of such an attempt: "'You're not allowed in the union meeting. Stand by the door; we're not ready for you yet. '" (J. Stead: 115). Another woman: "'They told us we couldn't do this and we couldn't do that [. . . ]. And they'd say "How dare you interfere in our area! We don't want you in our area; you're all right in the kitchen". '" (J . Stead: 116). The women from Easington made similar experiences: "I mean, the first union meetin' we went to to say 'We're startin' a support group. This is what we're gonna do. ', they made us wait outside. The second one they allowed us in and I remember standin' at the door and lookin' down the table at the chairman of the committee and saying to him 'Have you had a vote?' 'No. ' 'Because once you've taken this decision, mind, to let us in, there's no goin' back. We're not going back after the strike's over. ' And they were just laughing. " (H. Wood). Or: "There were times when the unions came in and said 'You can't do this' or 'You can't do that. ' And we said 'Who says like?' you know, 'this is our committee, you're in the union - we run what we're doing'. " (H. Wood).
On the other hand there were attempts from the union to take command of the Women's Support Groups and to take on certain of the women's tasks. "During this strike, in the north east, the men were careful to remain in charge. In Hetton during the strike, 'The orders just came from above. There were no joint meetings. They didn't say "We're doing this, we need your support. " If they had anything on they wanted organised it was like the tablets of stone coming down. And that grieved us a wee bit, because we felt the men weren't regarding us as equals. '" (J. Stead: 115). Heather Wood about the Christmas Appeal: "on the morning we were cooking the Christmas dinner and supposed to be giving the turkeys out the union landed - we'd raised the money, we'd bought the turkeys - the union came and said 'Our men are sitting and giving the turkeys out! Not because we're concerned that everything was fair. ' But the union had to be seen to be doing its bit [. . . ]. So we said, I remember I put me pen down, I says 'Right! You wanna organise that? You organise the rest! You can find the food, you ought to find the people to cook it, and do the lot!'[. . . ] Sure enough, after five minutes the union came over and said 'We're going and we let you go on with it. '" (H. Wood). As they did in this case women usually had their way against the union, they had the upper hand: "they knew they had to keep us happy. They had to give us what we wanted. Otherwise, you know, the strike would have failed. [. . . ] And, I mean I know, in the back of their minds, 'cause I'm knowin' them all, they've been saying 'When the strike's over it'll just go back to normal', you know, 'we'll be dominant again'. " (H. Wood). This attitude could be traced all through the union's hierarchy. On the International Women's Day rally at Chesterfield Stadium on 9 March, 1985, only four days after the end of the strike, Arthur Scargill announced in front of about 25,000 women that the NUM would "commemorate their contribution with a plaque in the lobby of the union's new headquarters. But he did not endorse the women's movement as such, or that dynamic sexual revolution. " (B. Campbell, 1986: 250). The women's efforts to gain associate membership in the NUM were also turned down despite Scargill's approval.
There have, however, been signs of improvements in the relationship with the union: In October 1984 the editor of the NUM paper 'The Miner' agreed to putting a women's page in 'The Miner'. Freda Dean from Philadelphia and Pat Curry from Murton, both canteen workers and NUM members, were elected lodge committee members in 1986 - the first in the country! (cf. The Durham Miner: 3). It probably needs a lot of such tiny steps but it mostly needs a younger generation of NUM leaders before women get associate membership and before women NUM members are treated like their male colleagues.
Women and the Labour Party
Before the strike 88% of the women who were active in support groups in the Easington District voted at general elections. Out of these almost 98% voted Labour! (cf. M. Metcalf: 26). After the strike, however, the percentage of women who would vote for Labour fell to 84%. Mark Metcalf quotes some of the reasons the women gave for this phenomenon: "'The Labour Party hasn't helped us, both locally and nationally, 'no interest', 'no help either locally or nationally', 'not convinced of Labour Parties support'" (M. Metcalf: 27). Women were supported by Labour Party groups outside the mining-communities but to assess the attitudes of men in mining-communities it is necessary to look at the Labour Party's attitudes there: In the coalfields the Labour Party was reluctant to support the miners and the Women's Support Groups. The women saw this quite clearly. Heather Wood: "I wasn't getting permission from the Labour Party to do the things I was doing. But it goes back to what I said to you before, I don't like red tape and I don't think we should have to go and ask. You should be able to do things on the spur of the moment. And I wasn't hurting the Party. In fact I did good for the Party, we got more votes [. . . ]. But [. . . ] I used to get flak from Labour Party members, especially the men" (H. Wood). In Hetton the situation was hardly different. Florence Anderson: "'In fact, we got no help from the Labour Party in Hetton at all. All we had from the Hetton Labour Party, in a mining community, was half the proceeds of a dance held in November, and we contributed to that because we all went along there and sat at the back and were never even mentioned. I think the Labour Party wasn't more involved because the miners' wives got together and took the lead from the start. '" (J. Stead: 29).
And Edith from Horden said that "'the strike has opened my eyes to some of the local Labour Councillors. Even the one's on strike have done nothing for us'. " (M. Metcalf: 28).
Neither union nor the Labour Party - both male dominated - tried to politically represent women and their problems and they thus missed the chance to attract new members on a large scale from the ranks of the women. It will now take a long time and a lot of commitment from the women to gain some influence in the Labour Party or in the union.
Equality at home?
In many households the strike had severe consequences: While the women were out organising the men had to do the housework. "They learned about solitude and the self-discipline and domestic skills needed for running a home, and they also, for the first time, learnt to enjoy their children. " (J. Stead: 31). Many men did not accept the role changes and quite a number of marriages broke up. Others, however, were strengthened. Although it seemed to be hard for him Patricia Heron's husband had to get used to his wife becoming more self-confident and independent. Patricia: "got to know about a Women's Rally down London. I would love to go. It's in August, but I don't know if Alby will let me go, I don't think he realy likes the idea of me realy getting involved. He can't get used to the idea of him watching the bairns, while I go out to meetings and going to the kitchen as well. He is just not used to sitting in while I am out. 2 yrs ago I would not of dreamed of saying I'm of to London for a couple of days, pet!!! I Like It For once he relises I am not just his little wife who cooks and cleans up after him, I am Pat, who can hold a conversation with other people. " (P. Heron: 11).
Men were forced to assume new roles, they just had to accept it. Many did and saw the positive effects for themselves and for their marriages. A miner from Maerdy: "I should say about 90 per cent of the women changed since the strike started. Before, you felt you were just the person who went home on a Friday night with the pay packet. There was just nothing to look forward to, nothing to talk about. [. . . ] Now we read the newspapers, think a lot about world affairs we see on television, and think maybe we can change things. " (J. Stead: 39).
Many of the men treated the women with a new respect. For the first time they saw more in them than just the housewives or mothers. Others did not: "I was in Welfare Hall one night selling raffle tickets and I went up to this table and a man was saying 'Bloody women! They're all stupid!' And he turned round, he saw me, he says 'Except you!' Now, that 'except me' is because I am doing something different to his wife. His wife stays at home, looks after the family, doesn't speak up for herself, takes notice of everything he says" (H. Wood). Far less men thought of women's change of roles as positively as they thought of their support work. Often the women were only tolerated for the time of the strike which the much used phrase 'going back to normal after the strike' proves. In the Easington Support Group there were some women "whose husbands quite regularly said 'Oh, we'll be going back to normal after the strike, mind. She's only doing this now!' And that did happen in some cases. " (H. Wood). Heather felt men's disapproving attitude herself: "I mean, sometimes when you meet some men they'll say 'Ah, here she comes', you know, Women's Lib and all this and you'll know that they dislike you because you're not just going out yourself, you're pushing them, their wives and their girlfriends, to do exactly the same as you're doing. So they see you as the badie. Some men who don't care but some see you, you know, to be the influence, the bad influence, you know. " (H. Wood).
As should be clear by now men's attitudes were very diverse. Equality has not often been achieved until today but that is only natural: the miners have been brought up to be dominant, to be the bread -winners and to see women as being inferior. But the women are aware of this problem and they handle it their way. Susan Petney: "'We are sort of re-educating them slowly. They are not liking it a lot. [. . . ] But slowly they are coming round to it. They don't call us 'ladies' any more. They call us women. That's a start. '" (J. Stead: 40). A lot remains to be done to change men's attitudes.
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In the preceding chapter all the quotations but one were by women. This is not a coincidence! It reflects quite well the proportion of men's accounts of the strike. Women produced a lot more. In this chapter women's own accounts of the strike and their roles before and during the strike as well as their plans and outlooks for the future shall be analysed in order to find out more about women's roles and about the way they see themselves. The importance of using personal accounts has already been explained; the following quotation only confirms this.
Jean Heaton, a miner's wife, said: "Now I'm thirty-two I suppose I'm just a housewife still to look at me from the outside. But inside I'm a very angry person, and I shall stay angry until we've got rid of this rotten Government and the rotten system it makes us live under. " (T. Parker: 128).
This quotation shows very vividly the importance of looking beneath the surface.
Two main types of accounts are of importance here:
1. Accounts which have been exclusively made by the women themselves or for which the idea came from them. These were mainly those accounts already mentioned: poetry and prose, bulletins and newsletters, posters and graffiti, comics and cartoons, stories, songs, letters, diaries, and histories. They show what the women consider most important for themselves or for others to know or notice. It has to be kept in mind that these accounts have come almost exclusively from that minority of women in the coalfields who were active during the strike.
2. The second type of accounts are those the women produced in co-operation with people from outside the mining communities, the idea not coming from the women. These were mostly interviews . Apart from being able to convey the women's opinions, attitudes, etc. they offer the advantage that the interviewer could direct the women's attention purposely to aspects the women might not have thought of themselves. It was also possible to interview those women who not actively supported the strike. It must not be forgotten, however, that, when published the interviews may not come out quite the way they were intended by the interviewees!
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During and after the Miners' Strike 1984/85 women in mining communities have written about a wide range of topics. Some, however, have been especially well covered.
In women's poems and stories these were:
1. Margaret Thatcher and Tory policy
2. The police
3. The children's and the communities' future
4. The legitimacy of the miners' cause and the miners' bravery
At first sight these topics do not reveal a new way of seeing oneself and even less a change of roles. It should not be forgotten, however, that women from mining-communities for the first time considered their opinions and problems important enough to be written down and even to be published. This has to be regarded as a new self-confidence and as an essential step towards emancipation.
It has also to be kept in mind that poems were often read out in support group meetings or at public rallies in order to confirm their aims and to make them more determined in their daily work. Here the poems served as an outlet for women's problems, their anger and their fears.
Other kinds of publications cover a different range of topics. Diaries for instance deal more with personal problems, positive and negative experiences in the support groups, with politics, the writers' future, and a lot more. All in all diaries provide a picture of their writers which is quite authentic.
For the assessment of women's roles and of the way they see themselves it is most interesting to look at statements which directly comment on this. Patricia Heron wrote in her diary: "I don't know if it is the strike but suddenly I find myself thinking very militant also for once in my 15 yrs of mariage I am not just 'our lass'. I am Pat"(P. Heron: 9). Or: "I am sure of one thing I will not go back to them days again" (P. Heron: 11). Women's stronger self-confidence becomes visible in 'Not By Bread Alone' as well. Scene five of the first act shows that they knew quite well of their pioneering role: "JOAN [. . . ] Mind you, we've made history. Must be the first women to have actually got into the union room. " (M. Pine: 14). In scene ten of the first act it becomes clear that the women will not give up what they had achieved:
"LIZ Never take a back seat again, will we! It's dead funny at home. I come in and say where's my clean blouse and there it is.
SANDRA I don't know where anything is now in my house.
LIZ My silly bugger didn't like it at first. Hasn't made him any less of a man.
JOAN Done a lot for us though, hasn't it?" (M. Pine: 47).
Women's wish to keep the newly gained equality, the newly gained self-confidence and the newly gained position in the community becomes obvious in the following: Shortly after the strike was over the women in 'Not By Bread Alone' planned several activities for the time after the strike.
"JOAN Don't forget, lasses, there's the trip to Greenham at the end of the month. . . Very important - shut down coal,
develop nuclear power, by-products for the military. It's all linked.
LIZ I'm ashamed to admit it, I once thought they were the lunatic fringe.
EDNA Was that before or after we became lunatics.
JOAN And there's our book. We've got two meetings next week with the Arts people. Is there anyone who still hasn't
given in their work. " (M. Pine: 79).
Sheila Graham, Secretary of Brenkley Miners' Support Group, said her group also had plans for the future: "We have a busy summer programme [1985] ahead of us. After speaking at a local meeting of the National Assembly of Women we are hoping to affiliate our group to this organisation. We have rallies against pit closures to attend, fund-raising to continue, speeches to make. Our fight goes on and on. " (S. Graham: 31). She concludes her booklet as follows: "THE END (No, it isn't!)" (S. Graham: 31).
Looking at the number of publications by women from mining-communities it is surprising how little the women said about themselves, all the more as the left or feminist press emphasised just this aspect of women's involvement - women's new roles, their new equality, their new voice, etc. In interviews with women from mining-communities, however, probably after the interviewer directed the interviewee's attention towards this topic, the women often said they would live a different life after the strike: "Most of us are not prepared to fit neatly back into domestic life and fade into the background. " (Women fight for pits: 26). Annie Brooks said: "The whole business made me much more of a thinking person: I could never go back to being like I was before. " (T. Parker: 113). And another woman: "'One thing is sure: we will not be the same women we were before the strike. '" (Lambeth Women's Miners Support Group: 33). This attitude was widely spread in the support groups. Betty Heathfield, one of the support movement's central figures, summarised women's opinions like this: "'Wir werden nicht zu dem zurückkehren, was wir vorher getan haben, und nur im Haus bleiben und für die Kinder sorgen [. . . ]. Wir werden andere Dinge tun und andere Dinge lernen. '"(H. Dirkes / S. Engert: 25).
There also were more concrete statements. The women knew quite well about their roles before and during the strike. Jean Heaton for instance judged herself thus: "You wouldn't think it to hear me now but I was a very quiet person before. I looked after the house and my husband and my children, some days I went to the shops, then I came back and did the housework and cooked for them and kept the house neat and tidy and clean. [. . . ] Just a housewife, that's all I ever was was a housewife, right from when I left school when I was fifteen. " (T. Parker: 127-128). Pauline Street had led a similar life: "Oh nothing like the strike time had ever happened to me before in the whole of my life. It changed me completely. I was very quiet before, I wouldn't say boo to a goose. I'd scarcely talked to anybody, I certainly wouldn't have been able to sit here like this and talk to you, but I'd let you do all the talking, I wouldn't be saying anything. The strike changed it all. It made me stronger and have a lot more confidence in myself and my own opinions. " (T. Parker: 117). She also had clear plans for her future: "It made me that from now on I wasn't just going to go along behind Alf through life, leaving everything to him. I've got a contribution to make to life too, my own opinions and my strength to add in with his. " (T. Parker: 124).
Annie Brooks planned to educate herself: "Before the strike I was just for my husband and the kiddies and my home, I never read a book, I never went in to the library, and all I ever watched on the television was all those silly quiz games and what do they call them, chat shows. I mean imagine a woman who's got to my age [she was forty-five then] and if you'd asked her what books she'd read in the last few years, about the only one she'd have been able to think of was a book of mostly pictures of the Royal Wedding. That was as far as my interest went in what went on in the world. [. . . ] Now I feel I'm much better informed about these things it helps me enjoy life more. " (T. Parker: 108, 113).
The question why women from mining-communities obviously did not lay the stress on the emancipatory aspect of their involvement in the strike remains to be answered. It may have been that they did not like to theorise about feminist topics and like supporting the strike they 'just got on with' emancipation. It may also have been that, in order to be able to theorise or - to name another example - to work in a political party, women would have had to learn the respective jargons. This accounts for the following statements: "I don't call myself a political person, I've never understood the ins and outs of it all"(T. Parker: 133). Or: "I'm not political because I've got no ideas about it and I don't understand it. " (T. Parker: 124). In the interviews these quotations are taken from both women incessantly talk about politics. And when Pauline Street said she had no ideas about it and did not understand it, all she probably meant was that she did not know the political jargon!
Maybe the established feminist movement expected too much of the women in mining-communities: a radical change of the women's attitudes. Pauline Street changed quite moderately: "I'm not a women's libber or anything though: I'd say I'm sort of in the middle. But I am reading about women's rights and all things like that, and taking a big interest in the subject. [. . . ] before the strike I'd never have given it a thought. " (T. Parker: 122-123).
For Pauline Street's next statement another explanation must be found. Pauline: "I always got back here in time for the bairns coming home from school, then I was ready to give them their teas and do the washing and get Alf's meal for when he came in. " (T. Parker: 117). At first sight this attitude - on the one side emancipation and on the other the husband comes first - is incomprehensible. A look at the past, however, shows that in mining-communities not only the women were exploited and "In their bones they had always known they were exploited but they knew that at least their exploitation paralleled that of the men they shared their lives with. That is why miners' wives don't, on the whole, take their resentment of the past out on the miners of the present. They complain about their husbands' prejudices but they are setting out to change them - in between looking after the kids and getting the meals ready for the end of the shift. " (J. Stead: 28), and thus the special quality of mining and of mining-communities found its expression in the special quality of the women's emancipation.
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It may be a long way from the intention to permanently change one's situation to its realisation, especially if there are various obstacles to be overcome. In the case of the women in mining -communities those obstacles were the men whose hopes the women would return to the kitchen sink once the strike was over have already been mentioned. Another obstacle were the women themselves! Mark Metcalf found out that
"Exactly half of the women when asked; 'When the dispute is over will you be returning to the way you lived before?' gave answers which indicated that continuing to be involved in Community organisations and activities was not likely to be important in their lives once the dispute had ended. 48% of this group want to return to the way they lived before the dispute began, 12% did not know what would happen and for 40% the major change in their lives would be concerned with how they handled and spent their income. These answers indicate that half of the women involved in S. E. A. M. remained basically the same people as they were prior to the dispute. " (M. Metcalf: 32).
Only an insignificantly small number of women who were active during the strike wanted to remain active.
A third and equally important obstacle for permanent change of roles was the families' material position: During the strike many families had run into debt which after the strike was a heavy burden for them. For the miners it meant more overtime work and for the women to be bound to the house even more.
There seems to be little hope for positive and permanent changes of women's roles. What remained after the strike was over? How much did the women, at least the active ones, keep of their freedom, their equality, and of their power and how much did they lose again? Documents and statements concerning these questions are very thin on the ground. Heather Wood reported about Easington: According to her some of the women returned to the same kind of life they led before the strike. "The men forced the wives to go back to what they were. [. . . ] I would say the vast majority of the women are still out. We've got women, more women members of the Labour Party. In my village - you know, I can only speak for mine now - we've got more women who are standin' for a councillor at the local elections in May, you know, who were members of the support group. So it has, it's achieved a lot I think. They've realised they can organise, you know, that they have got a voice, what they're sayin' isn't rubbish, you know, they can speak sense. They're keepin' it up, it's great. " (H. Wood). Heather's cousin Lorna Ruddell joined the Labour Party: "I joined the Labour Party when the strike ended, but we moved house during the strike + as you can well imagine it's been an uphill struggle starting from scratch, so I haven't been as involved as I should + could have been, but as I said to my mam, I was there when they needed me, I rallied to the call, I still want rid of Thatcher, so who knows what's next for me to do?" (L. Ruddell).
Heather again: "We're on all sorts of committees now within the community. We've got women who are on school government bodies now. The last one I nominated, I says 'I'm gonna nominate you for a parent representative on the school governors. ' 'Hee, no, I cannot do that!' I says 'Look at all the things you did in the strike. And everything you said "I cannot do it!" and you did it. So don't tell me you cannot go and sit on a school governors. You know what you want out of the school as much as I know what I want. '[. . . ] And now they're sitting there and making contributions. " (H. Wood).
Apart from such local activities there have been and still are regional and national activities organised by women who were active in the mining-communities. Some examples: "In Northumberland, members of the Women's Support Group are joining the campaign against the Druridge Bay Power Station. " (D. Massey / H. Wainwright, 1985 b: 9). The political learning process and the experiences with Greenham have borne fruit: The women not only understood the links between nuclear power and pit closures, they translated their knowledge into action.
In Durham something similar happened. There an organisation called LINKS was founded:
"LINKS is a mixed group of women and men originating in women's initiative in the Miners Support Groups in Durham. [. . . ] The purpose of LINKS is to enhance existing campaigns rather than to undermine or mould any other group into a rigid format. Involvement in LINKS is not commitment to a new bureaucracy but empowerment to take co-ordinated action. Divided we fall - United we'll win. " (LINKS: 5).
LINKS tries to connect the nation's and the world's major problems: Starvation, unemployment, lost communities, coal, energy politics, nuclear power, waste, South Africa, apartheid, the law, nuclear weapons, war, health, or education.
"The aims of the Anti-Apartheid movement are directly linked with the aims of the Peace movement which in turn are linked with the anti-nuclear movement and groups striving to protect their communities from mass unemployment or the dangers of pollution and radiation from the transporting and dumping of poisonous waste. These issues are locally and internationally linked with the way in which society is economically and militarily dominated by multinationals and the interests of capital. " (LINKS: 4)
This organisation arose from the experience that together women can achieve a lot but on their own have little chance in their struggles "which we know to be part of the same iceberg of exploitation, male violence and capitalism. " (LINKS: 2). For the Women's International Day for Disarmament on May 23/24, 1987 LINKS, or WOMEN'S LINKS as it is also called, prepared a number of activities "to demonstrate our power to defend ourselves and our families. "(WOMEN'S LINKS). The LINKS campaign also published a leaflet about the dangers of the Chernobyl disaster in 1986 (LINKS Campaign), which again shows their commitment in the field of nuclear power.
Women from mining-communities in the Northeast drew up a petition to the European Parliament "over the EEC's withdrawal of subsidy. 'It's a women's initiative, a women's coalfield petition. We took the initiative, we'll do the lobbying, because we can mobilise. Don't underestimate these women. The government did. The union did and they nearly got trampled on'", said Ann Suddick. (B. Campbell, 1986: 287).
These were only some of the outstanding activities after the strike. Most of the Women's Support Groups still meet regularly and "in many places [. . . ] they are just as busy with politics as they were during the strike. "(B. Campbell, 1986: 297).
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In both world wars women did - had to do - men's jobs in the families, in the industry, in the administration, or in the arts. When at the end of the wars most men returned home the women usually did the same. As has been shown this did not in all cases happen after the 1984/85 Miners' Strike. Will the changes the women underwent, however, be lasting? There are a number of arguments for this assumption.
First of all, at the beginning of the strike the women were emotionally ready to become active, to liberate themselves. All they needed was a push - which the strike provided. Therefore the chances for them to remain active long after the strike were and are good.
With the Women's Support Groups and with Women Against Pit Closures the women created organisations which existed beyond the strike and offered the necessary backing for the support and extension of women's achievements. Women furthermore made contacts with other women's organisations which will "give confidence and solidarity to all women in struggle" (Workers Power: 14 ) and secure this mass women's movements existence beyond the struggles of individual groups.
"Hope for the future [also] lies in the sheer quantity and variety of forms of expression used by, with and for the women, during and after the strike. " (A. John, 1986: 93). They also wrote their own history which can be judged as a sign that women did not want their experiences and achievements to be forgotten or distorted. "One may ask: 'aren't women's protests likely to be submerged and forgotten once again? Much, of course, depends on who provides the history and with what degree of sensitivity. There are some encouraging signs. In 1984-85 women not only made speeches, they rejected the principle of being spoken for" (A. John, 1986: 93).
The greatest hope for the future, however, lies in the children:
"It was the children under 12, particularly the girls, who threw themselves into supporting the strike, eager to go on as many marches as they could, collecting and exchanging badges and stickers. One nine-year-old girl had at least 100 badges all over her leather jacket. Small girls became extremely knowledgeable about the NUM and about the pits. If you asked a girl's mother a question, the odds were that the answer would come from the daughter before the mother got a chance to say a word. Not only the miners' wives, but also a whole generation of young women had been politicised. " (J. Stead: 87-88).
The daughters showed some pride in their mothers: "My daughter Jan felt neglected. She was used to me looking after her, and with me being out all the time some conflict was coming up. On the other hand I feel she was proud of what I was doing for the Miners' cause. " (M. Graveson: 2). P. Heron had a similar impression: ". . . my daughter Louise, who is used to me being in the house 24hrs a day is very surprised but I think she is a tiny bit proud of her mam. " (P. Heron: 9). Suddenly the children saw their mothers organise, speak to large audiences, travel all over the country and beyond, fight on picket lines, and so on. They also saw their fathers, perhaps for the first time, do the housework. For once the traditional way of socialising the children has been interrupted and it may, at least in some families, never be taken up again.
