Noora Mykkanen
METRO UK
Published Mar 17, 2024
Miners’ strikes opened new doors for working-class women
Forty years ago, the miners’ strikes helped revolutionise the role of women in the UK by forcing them ‘out of their comfort zone’ and into the frontlines of a battle to save their communities.
Over 142,000 miners went on strike across England, Scotland and Wales from 1984 to 1985 to oppose looming pit closures which put livelihoods and entire communities at risk.
They stood up against the National Coal Board and the Conservative government of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher with 20,000 jobs on the line.
Miners’ strikes opened new doors for working-class women
Forty years ago, the miners’ strikes helped revolutionise the role of women in the UK by forcing them ‘out of their comfort zone’ and into the frontlines of a battle to save their communities.
Over 142,000 miners went on strike across England, Scotland and Wales from 1984 to 1985 to oppose looming pit closures which put livelihoods and entire communities at risk.
They stood up against the National Coal Board and the Conservative government of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher with 20,000 jobs on the line.
Miners’ strikes became one of the biggest industrial disputes in British history (Credits: Doncaster Free Press / SWNS)
Some protests saw violent clashes between campaigners and the police (Credits: Doncaster Free Press/SWNS)
The board had its eyes set on mines it deemed unprofitable, and in early March 1984 the government said 20 collieries would shut.
This prompted the National Union of Miners (NUM) to declare a national strike, and picket lines began to appear in mining villages and towns throughout the country.
One such village was Sacriston, a mining community in County Durham, where Anna Lawson lived with her family.
Now 66 and living in County Durham, Lawson spoke to Metro about the impact of the strikes and how it opened new doors for working class women like her.
‘No going back for women after the strike’
One of UK’s biggest industrial disputes was about ‘fighting for survival’, Lawson said.
If the nearest pit was shut, the village would be classed as category D, which meant it was up for demolition.
The board had its eyes set on mines it deemed unprofitable, and in early March 1984 the government said 20 collieries would shut.
This prompted the National Union of Miners (NUM) to declare a national strike, and picket lines began to appear in mining villages and towns throughout the country.
One such village was Sacriston, a mining community in County Durham, where Anna Lawson lived with her family.
Now 66 and living in County Durham, Lawson spoke to Metro about the impact of the strikes and how it opened new doors for working class women like her.
‘No going back for women after the strike’
One of UK’s biggest industrial disputes was about ‘fighting for survival’, Lawson said.
If the nearest pit was shut, the village would be classed as category D, which meant it was up for demolition.
Women collected food parcels and ran soup kitchens for struggling miners in Doncaster (Credits: Doncaster Free Press/SWNS)
She said: ‘The women’s song says when you’re fighting for survival you have nothing to lose, because if you don’t save the pit, it will be a hell of a struggle to save the community’.
However, pits began to close fast after the industrial action ended, with only 15 pits out of 174 remaining open in 1994.
The eventual closures hit coal towns hard, leaving many families to struggle amid mass unemployment.
Downfall of the coal industry is still felt in many former mining towns, many of which have never recovered.
As the villages fought for survival and started to crumble, women played a vital role in keeping their communites together.
Women have ‘always had a role in emergency situations when men have gone to war’, Lawson explained, and this was no different.
She said: ‘The women’s song says when you’re fighting for survival you have nothing to lose, because if you don’t save the pit, it will be a hell of a struggle to save the community’.
However, pits began to close fast after the industrial action ended, with only 15 pits out of 174 remaining open in 1994.
The eventual closures hit coal towns hard, leaving many families to struggle amid mass unemployment.
Downfall of the coal industry is still felt in many former mining towns, many of which have never recovered.
As the villages fought for survival and started to crumble, women played a vital role in keeping their communites together.
Women have ‘always had a role in emergency situations when men have gone to war’, Lawson explained, and this was no different.
Trade union leader Arthur Scargill and his wife Anne at national women’s demonstration against pit closures (Credits: PA)
Miners at a protest in Doncaster (Credits: Doncaster Free Press / SWNS)
But the strikes also opened up a world of opportunities women didn’t think were possible until then.
Summarizing her role, Lawson said: ‘We fed the children and the striking miners.’
But just those eight words highlighted the questions of ‘where did the food come from, where did the knowledge to cook it come from’, she added.
‘To do that women had to make links in the wider community.
‘We were fundraising, educating, being educated and we learned as we went along. And as we went along, we became more politicised. We wrote speeches, we empowered each other.’
‘It took everybody out of their comfort zone, but they hadn’t realised they were in one. That was really important.
But the strikes also opened up a world of opportunities women didn’t think were possible until then.
Summarizing her role, Lawson said: ‘We fed the children and the striking miners.’
But just those eight words highlighted the questions of ‘where did the food come from, where did the knowledge to cook it come from’, she added.
‘To do that women had to make links in the wider community.
‘We were fundraising, educating, being educated and we learned as we went along. And as we went along, we became more politicised. We wrote speeches, we empowered each other.’
‘It took everybody out of their comfort zone, but they hadn’t realised they were in one. That was really important.
A road in Doncaster after a clash during a protest
(Credits: Doncaster Free Press/SWNS)
‘I don’t mean to be rude, but a lot of people were in their own bubble and believed what was in the papers’.
At the time, Lawson had three children, including a toddler who was ‘very much part of the strikes’ and she was also in the process of separating from her husband.
She was brought up in an educated family with teacher parents and three brothers with ‘very advanced’ political views. Both sides of her family had worked in the mines all their lives, although her father managed to ‘escape it’.
However, she was still ‘expected to do the ironing’ when she lived at home.
Speaking of her grandparents, she said: ‘Their parents were born in the 1800s.
‘I think the gender stereotypes were still in our existence, in our memory and background.’
Taking action in the face of social injustice was ‘just natural’ for Lawson who was nicknamed ‘Anna with the banner’ already before the strikes.
‘I don’t mean to be rude, but a lot of people were in their own bubble and believed what was in the papers’.
At the time, Lawson had three children, including a toddler who was ‘very much part of the strikes’ and she was also in the process of separating from her husband.
She was brought up in an educated family with teacher parents and three brothers with ‘very advanced’ political views. Both sides of her family had worked in the mines all their lives, although her father managed to ‘escape it’.
However, she was still ‘expected to do the ironing’ when she lived at home.
Speaking of her grandparents, she said: ‘Their parents were born in the 1800s.
‘I think the gender stereotypes were still in our existence, in our memory and background.’
Taking action in the face of social injustice was ‘just natural’ for Lawson who was nicknamed ‘Anna with the banner’ already before the strikes.
A protest to ask for a 24-hours strike to support miners outside a TUC conference on September 4, 1984. (Credits: B. Gomer/Daily Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)She said: ‘There was a need and I was there and I just dived in.
‘We were different to the coastal pits – they could see the closures coming, but we had absolutely no idea’.
Lawson also joined the Women Against Pit Closures campaign, a national movement that grew out of local groups.
The Sacriston women started to learn ‘how to do things properly’ as the strikes went on.
They opened a welfare hub in an empty cobblers shop. It sold things not found elsewhere in the village and it had books at the back.
It was run by ‘only women’ which the men ‘didn’t like very much’, she noted.
If someone’s power was going to be cut off, the campaigners ‘put a line around it’.
Protesters outside the TUC (Trades Union Congress) conference hall in Brighton (Credits: Popperfoto via Getty Images)She said: ‘That’s when I got really interested in welfare law.
‘There is a moratorium even now where people with a disability, with kids under a certain age and elderly can’t have their electricity cut off. That came off the strikes’.
After the strikes, many women she knew took ’employment opportunities they would not have taken before’, she said.
‘Many went into university and professions they would not have considered. We set an example to our children and that continues in our children and now in our grandchildren’.
Lawson herself took the plunge into welfare law, practicing and teaching it for a decade.
The strikes had showed women across the country that their role in protest was ‘not just feeding the children, but about solidarity, education and communication’, Lawson said.
There was ‘absolutely no going back’ to the ‘convenient stereotypes’ and women returning to being wives like many had done when the World Wars ended, she stressed.
Many Sacriston women ‘didn’t want it to be over’ when the strike was declared over, she said laughing.
‘The men went back to work, but we found ways forward because we were already on a roll’, she said.
‘The women’s role in the strike created a legacy of protest art and protest music that has a universality for women who are in conflict or struggle wherever they may be’, she concluded.
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