- Format: Paperback
- ISBN: 978-1-5261-6043-0
- Pages: 208
- Publisher: Manchester University Press
- Price: £20.00
- Published Date: October 2021
- BIC Category: Modern History, Society & social sciences / Demonstrations & protest movements, Society & social sciences / Gender studies: women, History, United Kingdom, Great Britain, Trade unions, Later 20th century c 1950 to c 1999, Gender studies: women & girls, HISTORY / Europe / Great Britain / 20th Century, Humanities / Social & cultural history, HISTORY / Social History, HISTORY / Women, Society & social sciences / Sociology: work & labour
- Series: Gender in History
This book draws upon original research into women's workplace protest to deliver a new account of working-class women's political identity and participation in post-war England. Focusing on the voices and experiences of women who fought for equal pay, skill recognition and the right to work between 1968 and 1985, it explores why working-class women engaged in such action when they did, and it analyses the impact of workplace protest on women's political identity. A combination of oral history and written sources are used to illuminate how everyday experiences of gender and class antagonism shaped working-class women's political identity and participation. The book contributes a fresh understanding of the relationship between feminism, workplace activism and trade unionism during the years 1968-1985.
'The easy-to-read volume provides a clear introduction to a field from which even more research can be expected in the future.'
'Moss's work will be of interest to oral historians generally as he shows how much can be gained by studying life histories and how participants in key events make sense of their past. He pays careful attention to how people tell their stories and their memories. His work is an argument by example for the importance of those lives.'
Twentieth Century British History, Grace Millar
'Moss's work is an invaluable corrective to the mythologizing that has surrounded these strikes. [...] this work is a must-read for all those interested in the history of women, labour and indeed radical ideas more generally, in postwar Britain.'
Contemporary British History, Natalie Thomlinson
1. Contextualising women's workplace activism in post-war England
2. The Ford Sewing-Machinists' Strike, 1968, Dagenham
3. The Trico-Folberth Equal Pay Strike, Brentford, 1976
4. Sexton's Shoe Factory Occupation and Fakenham Enterprises, Norfolk, 1972-77
5. The Ford Sewing-Machinists' Strike, Dagenham, 1984-85
Jonathan Moss is Lecturer in Politics at the University of Sussex