Our Sisters' Land

The Changing Identities of Women in Wales

Edited by Jane Aaron, Teresa Rees, Sandra Betts and Moira Vincentelli

' . . . a wide-ranging and thought-provoking survey of women in contemporary Wales'. (Books in Wales)

'Our Sisters' Land goes a very long way in exploring and exploding the nineteenth-century nonconformist myth of the 'Welsh man' by bringing together a range of scholarly and personal contributions which outline and analyse the transformation of women in contemporary society . . . an extremely important and long overdue scholarly contribution to Women's Studies in Wales.' (New Welsh Review)

'At long last . . . an intelligent, enlightened and feminist analysis of the postion of women in contemporary Wales.' (Planet)

Women's lives in Wales are changing dramatically. Transformations in the family, in the workplace, in culture and in politics are all contributing to the forging of new identities. Yet the major public images of Wales remain fixed in the past, male constructions of a masculine Wales. The richly diversified pattern of Welsh women's experience is still largely unrecorded and unexplored. Through a combination of researched essays and personal statements, this book aims to counter that neglect. Its contributions examine women in the home and in education, training and paid work, in rural and urban life, in English-speaking and Welsh-speaking contexts, in agriculture and in politics, in religion and the arts, in schools and in old age.

This book is a companion to Our Mothers' Land: chapters in Welsh women's history 1830-1939 edited by Angela V. John.

Our Sisters' Land is aimed at a wide audience, and should be of interest to the general reader, as well as students interested in the position of women in Wales - from GCSE to Masters degrees in Womens' Studies. It draws upon a range of disciplines from sociology to literary criticism, but does not presume any prior knowledge either of Wales, or the feminist perspectives upon which it draws.

Editors: Jane Aaron, Senior Lecturer in English, University of Wales, Aberystwyth; Teresa Rees, Senior Research Fellow, School for Advanced Urban Studies, University of Bristol; Sandra Betts, Lecturer in Sociology, University of Wales, Bangor; Moira Vincentelli, Lecturer in Art History, University of Wales, Aberystwyth.

Contents

PART ONE
I. Private Lives: Home and Community

• The changing family in Wales Sandra Betts
• Who does the dishes? Three generations of Welsh women talking about men and housework Jane Pilcher
• The refuge movement and domestic violence Nicki Charles
• Old women in rural Wales G. Clare Wenger

II. Public Lives: Education, Training and Work

• Women and paid work in wales Teresa Rees
• Educating Rhian: experiences of mature women students Pam Garland
• The farmer needs a wife: farm women in Wales Shan Ashton
• Chasing credentials: women further-education teachers and in-service training Jane Salisbury
• Promoting gender equality in schools Patricia Daniel

PART TWO
III. Representing Women: Culture and Politics

• Finding a voice in two tongues: gender and colonization Jane Aaron
• The strains of transition: contemporary Welsh-language women novelists Delyth George
• The cost of community: Women in Raymond Williams's fiction Gwyneth Roberts
• Artefact and identity: The Welsh dresser as domestic display and cultural symbol Moira Vincentelli
• Women, nationalism and Feminism Charlotte Aull Davies

IV. Personal Voices: The Politics of Identity

• A Welsh lady Angharad Tomos
• Identity and religion Enid Morgan
• Between two worlds Mary Lloyd Jones
• Writing is a bird in hand Menna Elfyn
• Beginning with Bendigeidfran Gillian Clarke
• A Welsh lesbian feminist: a contradiction in terms? Roni Crwydren
• The highest honour Elizabeth Muir