Women in Rhondda Society, C.1870 - 1939
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_________________________________________________________________________Swansea University E-Theses Women in Rhondda society, c.1870 - 1939. Snook, Lisa Jane How to cite: _________________________________________________________________________ Snook, Lisa Jane (2002) Women in Rhondda society, c.1870 - 1939.. thesis, Swansea University. http://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa43140 Use policy: _________________________________________________________________________ This item is brought to you by Swansea University. Any person downloading material is agreeing to abide by the terms of the repository licence: copies of full text items may be used or reproduced in any format or medium, without prior permission for personal research or study, educational or non-commercial purposes only. The copyright for any work remains with the original author unless otherwise specified. The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holder. Permission for multiple reproductions should be obtained from the original author. Authors are personally responsible for adhering to copyright and publisher restrictions when uploading content to the repository. Please link to the metadata record in the Swansea University repository, Cronfa (link given in the citation reference above.) http://www.swansea.ac.uk/library/researchsupport/ris-support/ Women in Rhondda Society, c.1870 -1939 A thesis submitted to the University of Wales for the degree of Philosophiae Doctor by Lisa Jane Snook, B.A. Department of History University of Wales Swansea 13th September, 2002 ProQuest Number: 10821532 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a com plete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 10821532 Published by ProQuest LLC(2018). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States C ode Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 Contents Declaration Acknowledgements Summary List of Abbreviations Introduction 1 Chapter One: The provision of education for women and girls 13 Chapter Two: Work 71 Chapter Three: Home, Health and Family 127 Chapter Four: Leisure 183 Chapter Five: Politics 247 Chapter Six: Protest 300 Conclusion 344 Appendix 1 348 Appendix 2 349 Appendix 3 350 Appendix 4 351 Bibliography 536 Acknowledgements I owe many thanks to" so many people who have helped me in various ways throughout this research. My supervisor Professor David Howell has consistently offered me the benefit of his wisdom and his experience and has given me unfailing support and advice, for which I am very grateful. I also owe thanks to the staff of the many libraries and archive repositories I have visited, most especially the librarians at Treorchy Library, Pontypridd Library, the National Library of Wales and the South Wales Miners’ Library. Further, special thanks go to the staff at the Glamorgan Record Office in Cardiff where much of my research was undertaken, and to Elisabeth Bennett, archivist at the University of Wales, Swansea. Lastly, to my family and friends I write a very special thank you, especially to Mum and Dad, who once again helped and supported me in so many ways. SUMMARY OF THESIS The history of the women in the South Wales coalfield is a subject that has not received adequate attention by historians. Where women are included in novels and histories of the area, they appear as shadowy figures in their prescribed role as the wives and mothers of the working men, the miners. This thesis is a broad-based study of the lives of some of the women who lived in the Rhondda Valley area of the coalfield during the period from 1870 to the years immediately preceding the Second World War. The adequacy of representing women solely as working-class wives and mothers is questioned through an investigation of various activities in which some women were able to participate, including the sphere of politics and protest, leisure, work and education. In addition to analysing activity outside of the domestic sphere, the thesis also looks more closely at the women who formed the community, especially, although not exclusively, those who fall outside of the traditional perception of Rhondda Women, for example middle-class women and unmarried women. Furthermore, attention has been paid to them throughout their stages of the life cycle; from girlhood - thereby incorporating their experiences in schools and participation in leisure activities - through their adult years to old age. In essence, the thesis seeks to give a more rounded view of the lives of women in the Rhondda Valleys from the hey day of the mines in the late nineteenth century to the decline of the industry in the inter-war period. Abbreviations BofE(W.D) Board of Education (Welsh Department) CWB Central Welsh Board GCC Glamorgan County Council GRO Glamorgan Record Office MRC Modem Records Centre, University of Warwick NLW National Library of Wales NUT National Union of Teachers RUDC Rhondda Urban District Council SWCC South Wales Coalfield Collection TL Treorchy Library UWS University of Wales, Swansea YSB Ystradyfodwg School Board Introduction The lives of women in the Rhondda Valleys, as in coalfield societies generally, is an area about which little is known. Despite the numerous books and articles written on the history of the area, only scant attention has been paid to the role that women played in the emerging society and the impact that the particular characteristics of the area had upon their lives. Well known works on the South Wales Coalfield, such as E.D. Lewis’sRhondda Valleys, K. S. Hopkins’s Rhondda Past and Future, and Rhondda: My Valley Brave by Emrys Pride concentrate upon the industrial development of the district in the mid-nineteenth century, and the difficulties resulting from the ensuing decline of the coal industry in the 1930s. Discussions, in such works, of the communities of workers which grew up around the pits are limited, focussing upon the influence of religion in the lives of the workers, and, conversely, the impact of the public house, and certain features of life outside work, such as health, education and housing. Only one of the studies mentioned above pays any particular attention to the lives of women; Emrys Pride devotes five pages of his study to a highly romanticised image of Rhondda women. The lack of information upon women in society generally has been blamed on a number of factors, including the lack of sources, the traditional image of Welsh society, and the way in which history has previously been written. In their study of women and ageing in England, Pat Thane and Lynn Botelho pointed out the assumptions that had to be overcome in order to include women in history. They noted that: Until recently the historical profession claimed that little could be learned about the past lives of women. The world was male, the documents it generated were also ‘male’ in that they reflected male concerns and recorded 1 developments of importance to males. Furthermore, it was assumed that the life experience of women did not differ in any significant way from that of men.1 Whilst this is certainly one of the problems with ‘traditional’ histories in Britain, it has additionally been argued that Welsh women’s history has suffered from further factors, such as the ‘macho’ image of Wales, and in particular south Wales. The identity of the principality is very much based upon coalminers, rugby players and male voice choirs which has ensured that women have become ‘culturally invisible’ in Welsh history.2 Additionally, the powerful labour tradition and the emphasis upon institutional and organised aspects of modem Welsh history, the strength of nonconformity and domestic values and the low female participation rates in the formal economy have all been considered as contributory factors.3 Beddoe, in fact, blames the ‘three mighty factors’ of: patriarchy, under which men have been held in much higher esteem than women; capitalism, as a result of the dependence upon coal and male labour; and history, which for a long time did not study women.4 Whilst recognising that the study of gender in the coalfield represents the biggest gap in the history of the district, Chris Williams has argued that this emphasis upon industrial and political history has led to the neglect of its social and community history. This has begun to be remedied, and he goes on to list a number of recent works which have made a valuable contribution to an understanding of community life, although few of them refer specifically to women. His Capitalism, Community and Conflict helps by integrating the experiences of 1 L. Botelho and P. Thane (eds.), Women and Ageing in British Society since 1500, (London: Longman, 2001), p. 12. D. Beddoe, ‘Images of Welsh Women’, in T. Curtis (ed.), Wales, the Imagined Nation: Studies in Cultural and National Identity, (Bridgend: Poetry Press, 1986), pp. 228-29. 3 Angela John (ed.), Our Mothers ’ Land: Chapters in Welsh Women’s History, 1830-1939, (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1991), p. 1. 4 Beddoe, ‘Images of Welsh Women’, pp. 228-29. 2 women into this study of the south Wales Community, but he notes that further research is needed.3 More modem studies of the Rhondda, and the South Wales Coalfield generally, have attempted to draw women in. Dai Smith and Hywel Francis’s The Fed, for example, mentions many women actively involved in the protests of the inter-war period, and Chris Williams’s Democratic Rhondda, as hinted, draws attention to a number of women politically active in the labour movement.