Welsh Journals

WOMEN AND TRADE UNIONISM IN WELSH RURAL SOCIETY, 1889 1950 David A. Pretty An obsessive concern with the injustices suffered by a particular group of workers can all- too-easily lead one to disregard a similar body inflicted with greater wrongs. In this case, it might even be construed as gender discrimination. For in examining the class struggles of the Welsh agricultural labourer, and the vicissitudes of rural trade unionism,1 the female farm workers have been patently neglected. One should not readily assume that there would be little of significance to say and allow others to draw the necessary inference from the resulting silence.After all, women who found employment as farm workers or servant maids were equally subservient and as much exploited, if not more so, as the men. Unfortunately, their capacity to suffer hardship could be turned into a virtue. As it was, they had good cause to cry out against a drab, miserable existence that allowed little outlet for their frustrations. In turn, they, too, had every reason to be drawn into the revolt of the rural labouring class that found expression in ApFfarmwr's crusade in the 1890s and the successful collective organisations of 1917-20. But what impact did the labour movement have on disaffected female farm workers? At the risk of appearing as a belated appendix to the original study, this article will seek to make compensatory amends by throwing a little light on the challenge posed by rural trade unionism, on some prevailing attitudes, and on the subsequent level of response. In the harsh world of the rural peasantry women had always worked alongside the menfolk in the ordinary operations of agriculture from time out of mind. Little sympathy was shown for their fate until the middle of the nineteenth century, when the religious and moral aspects of their inferior social condition began to trouble the Christian conscience sufficiently to evoke rare examples of outward concern. In the aftermath of the 'Treason of the Blue Books' (1847), and its attacks on unchaste country women, the Rev. Evan Jones ('Ieuan Gwynedd') had good reason to decry their status as 'slaves kept in ignorance'.2 More harrowing were the contemporary descriptions of the hiring fair. Rows of women and young farm servant girls stood for hours in the open street, jostled by boisterous crowds and braving all kinds of weather, in order to catch the eye of a prospective employer.3 On the initiative of the vicar of Brecon, a committee of local ladies was established in the town in 1890 to consider some reforms.4 As a result, women attending the Brecon hiring fair were ushered into the Guildhall to conduct negotiations with the farmers in more civilized surroundings. But beyond this, conditions remained unchanged. All they could look forward to was a life of unending physical labour that robbed them of their femininity; a silent acquiescence rewarded with bent bodies and stunted hands. Female agricultural workers were mainly unmarried women engaged at the hiring fair for a year or half year and boarded on the farm. The vast majority became indoor servants, although it was accepted that they should assist with general farm duties. This could mean dairy work, planting and picking potatoes, loading carts, gathering stones and helping out at harvest times. Very few were expressly hired as full-time outdoor workers. In other words, exploitation was the order of the day with hard toil in the fields added to the long hours spent in the farmhouse on ordinary domestic routine. Women were the earliest to rise and the last to retire at night. Little