Women in the Miners' Strike, 1984-85

This two-year project, from 2018-2020, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, gathered oral histories with women from coalfield communities around Great Britain.

The project was based at UCL and the University of Reading. Our project partner was the National Coal Mining Museum for England.

The year-long miners’ strike of 1984-5 is one of the most well-known episodes of the Thatcher years. Although social scientists have studied it, cultural, social, and gender historians have completed little research on the strike. In particular, there is, as yet, no major historical study of the experiences of women from coalfield communities during the strike. This project aimed to write this history.

We are examining women’s experiences - of all sorts - during the strike, but we are also interested in women’s whole life stories. The research will, thus, shed broader light on working-class women’s lives in Britain since 1945.

We have interviewed over 100 women from coalfield communities and created a new archive of oral history interviews, which we have deposited at the National Coal Mining Museum for England for future researchers to use.

From 29 February 2020 to 3 January 2021, a special National Coal Mining Museum exhibition allowed visitors to hear and watch some of our interviewees remembering their experiences during the strike.

We planned to host four community dinners to learn more about women in the miners’ strike. However, due to the outbreak of coronavirus the March and April dinners were cancelled.

Link

Research Team

Florence Sutcliffe-Braithwaite, UCL
Florence is a historian of twentieth-century Britain, focusing mainly on class and gender. Her first book, Class, Politics and the Decline of Deference in England, 1968-2000, was published in 2018.

Natalie Thomlinson, University of Reading
Natalie is a historian of modern Britain, specialising in the study of feminism, gender and race. Her first book was entitled Race, Ethnicity and the Women’s Movement in England, 1968-1993 and was published in 2016.

Victoria Dawson, UCL
Victoria is a historian of twentieth-century Britain, specialising in working-class and women’s history. Her PhD thesis was Women and Rugby League: Gender, Class and Community in the North of England, 1880-1970.

Jessica Hammett, UCL
Jess is a historian of twentieth-century Britain; her doctoral research examined civil defence in the Second World War. She has worked extensively on public history and public engagement and is the Public Engagement Associate on the project.

UCL Academic Mentor
Melvyn Stokes

Advisory Board
Matt Worley (University of Reading)
Margot Finn (UCL)
Lucy Delap (University of Cambridge)
Jon Lawrence (University of Exeter)
Peter Mandler (University of Cambridge)