Women, workplace militancy and political subjectivity in Britain, 1968-1985

This thesis examines the experiences and political subjectivity of women who engaged in workplace protest in Britain between 1968 and 1985. The study covers a period that has been identified with the ‘zenith’ of trade-union militancy in British labour history. The women’s liberation movement also emerged in this period, which produced a shift in public debates about gender roles and relations in the home and the workplace. Women’s trade union membership increased dramatically and trade unions increasingly committed themselves to supporting ‘women’s issues’. Industrial disputes involving working-class women have frequently been cited as evidence of women’s growing participation in the labour movement. However, the voices and experiences of female workers who engaged in workplace protest remain largely unexplored. This thesis addresses this space through an original analysis of the 1968 sewing-machinists’ strike at Ford, Dagenham; the 1976 equal pay strike at Trico, Brentford; the 1972 Sexton shoe factory occupation in Fakenham, Norfolk; the 1981 Lee Jeans factory occupation in Greenock, Inverclyde and the 1984-1985 sewing-machinists’ strike at Ford Dagenham. Drawing upon a combination of oral history and written sources, this study contributes a fresh understanding of the relationship between feminism, workplace activism and trade unionism during the years 1968-1985. In every dispute considered in this thesis, women’s behaviour was perceived by observers as novel, ‘historic’ or extraordinary. But the women did not think of themselves as extraordinary, and rather understood their behaviour as a legitimate and justified response to their everyday experiences of gender and class antagonism. The industrial disputes analysed in this thesis show that women’s workplace militancy was not simply a direct response to women’s heightened presence in trade unions. The women involved in these disputes were more likely to understand their experiences of workplace activism as an expression of the economic, social and subjective value of their work. Whilst they did not adopt a feminist identity or associate their action with the WLM, they spoke about themselves and their motivations in a manner that emphasised feminist values of equality, autonomy and self-worth.

Social contact and trust: a study of a super diverse neighbourhood

This thesis presents an in-depth case study of a superdiverse neighbourhood in Glasgow where long-term white and ethnic minority communities reside alongside Roma migrants, asylum seekers and refugees, young professionals and other recent arrivals in traditional tenement housing. It focuses on the nature and extent of social contact and trust and on the role of context in shaping social relations. Employing the concepts of social milieu and intersectionality to identify social differences the research examines the relationships between five broad groupings of residents in the neighbourhood: Nostalgic Working Class, Scottish Asian, Liberal Homeowners, Kinship-sited Roma and Global Migrants. Ethnographic fieldwork was carried out in contexts within the neighbourhood, theorised as being potential sites for intergroup contact. Three types of interactions were examined: Group-based Interactions, Neighbour Interactions and Street Interactions. The data comprised documentary evidence, participant and direct observations, in-depth qualitative and walk-along interviews with residents and local organisations. Findings show that rather than individualising and isolating residents, superdiversity can stimulate community activism, yet there remains a preference for interaction within one’s own social milieu. The research has found that the concentration of poverty and material conditions has a more profound effect on social relations than historical diversity and the extent to which diversity is normalised within local discourses. Trust judgements in a superdiverse context may rely more on shared interests, moral outlook and assessments of the context rather than the extent of social contact. The quasi-private spaces of shared residential spaces and community activities can facilitate encounters with the potential to build trust, yet for this to occur cooperation through shared activities may not be sufficient. Interactions may need to move beyond co-presence and conviviality to increased understanding and empathy through dialogue. At an aggregate level, the extent to which superdiversity contributes to social contact and trust within the neighbourhood is strongly influenced by contextual factors and wider economic processes influencing housing tenure mix, private renting, property maintenance, residential churn and environmental conditions. Through examining different types of social contacts, the dynamics of trust as well as contextual influences, this thesis offers insights into the causal processes and factors that influence social relations at a local level.