Women Against Pit Closures

During the 1984-85 British Miners’ Strike, women’s groups emerged in various forms and for various purposes. Calling themselves ‘Women Against Pit Closures’, these groups across the country organised not only strike-oriented activities, support and community needs provision, but also came to act autonomously on gendered interests. In what follows I outline a brief history of the miners’ strike, the origins of womens’ activities within this strictly gendered strike and the ways in which womens’ roles were transformed through struggle, not only with the Thatcher government and the NCB, but also with men and the NUM.