West of England and South Wales Women's History Network Blog

In this blog, Micaela Panes shows how working class women’s contribution to labour politics in south Wales after the Second World War has often been overlooked, and argues that women played a significant part in   local labour politics.         The experience of working-class women activists in post-war Wales is a particularly neglected area in British political history. Scholarship has predominantly focused on what has been considered the ‘golden era’ of women’s labour activism - the interwar years. Unlike scholarship on the interwar period which often has a regional focus, most studies exploring women’s Labour politics in the post-war period tend to take a more national and institutional approach. Although these studies are valuable for our understanding of British Labour and women’s politics, there is a tendency to overlook the significance of grassroots politics and the experience of rank-and-file women. The period 1945 to 1970 is one of great political,...