Women And The Miners’ Strike 1984–1985 is a book not to be judged by its cover: Martin Shakeshaft’s image of singing protesters marching down a Valleys street beneath a banner for Maerdy Women’s Support Group. This upholds a common narrative, that the strike politicised many women after they became involved. Authors Florence Sutcliffe-Braithwaite and Natalie Thomlinson suggest that its political, social and cultural impact has been overstated, including – perhaps especially – concerning women.

The reality, say both researchers, was more complex, based on their interviews with a diverse array of women around the country – including some who actively opposed the strike. Predecessors in this field have often relied primarily on the views of left-wing women and feminists with a vested interest in promoting a certain narrative, and in other cases neglected women’s own personal accounts altogether. Sutcliffe-Braithwaite and Thomlinson argue that this overstatement has arisen in part through an understatement of social and economic shifts from the late 1940s to early 1980s; by 1984, many miners’ wives already enjoyed the relative independence that came through paid labour and productive activity outside the home.

Avoiding the pitfalls of sweeping generalisations or grand narratives, the authors instead offer a clear-sighted and fascinating insight into the “messy reality”. Accounts of the strike herein emphasise the grey areas over black-and-white simplicity. Just as the extent of strike action varied not only inter-regionally but intra-regionally (including in south Wales), so too did the level of women’s political engagement. Communities and commitments were divided to differing degrees, and women’s stances were largely more motivated by loyalty to their husbands than by loftier political or ideological goals – one group of women were employed in a colliery canteen, but continued to work because their wages were supporting their striking husbands. Support groups like the one on the cover sometimes experienced friction and hostility from the people they were set up to help; some miners and union reps, the authors argue, felt emasculated by women’s presence on the picket line.

Many who became engaged in strike-related action saw themselves as “ordinary” women, rather than activists, and the women’s liberation movement was often viewed ambivalently, warily and as a middle-class phenomenon. The authors’ focus on women’s lived experiences draws attention to the realities of everyday domestic life; the resilience, ingenuity and thrift needed to keep families afloat in the face of increasing hardship. When the strike ended, a year after it had begun, some women continued their activism, but most support groups disbanded and gendered division of labour largely re-emerged: most women, say Sutcliffe-Braithwaite and Thomlinson, simply wanted a return to “normal”.