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Women’s Studies Monographs Series 1 & 2

Women’s Studies Monographs, Series 1

Edited by Patricia Daniel

The Changing Lives of Women Travellers by Irene Norman

This study seeks to provide an insight into the roles, function and daily activities of women Travellers on a semi-legal site in North Wales and to convey something of the complexity of the taboos and rules of pollution which govern their lives. This study is particularly ambitious because, unlike most of her contemporaries, Irene chose to focus on a topic outside her immediate experience. Her analysis highlights Traveller women as an oppressed group with strategies for survival within the larger community of travelers, themselves an oppressed group with strategies for survival against a hostile ‘settled’ community.

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Educating Women – Re-educating Men? by Julie Hanson-Williams

This research discusses the difficulties encountered when women, who have partners and young children, return to education. The topic cuts right to the heart of Women’s Studies itself – women’s right it learn, think for themselves and speak out. Analysis of the interviews graphically reveals the process of deterioration of the women’s relationships during their studies and argues that it is men who need to be re-educated.

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Nurse Training in the Caernarfon and Anglesey Hospital 1935-1949 by Katherine A Williams

This study focuses on the first fifteen years of nurse training in the Caernarfon and Anglesey Hospital, Bangor. Katherine aimed to give recognition to the lives and contribution of the ‘rank and file’ nurse and address the continued lack of power of nurses within health care. Taking an historical approach, this study enables us to see how women have contributed to their own subservient positions in hospitals, re-enforcing the patriarchal rules and the segregation of (male) doctors and (female) nurses.

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Continuity and Change in Women’s Lives in Gwynedd 1937-1947 by Marian Gwyn

This body of research offers an analysis of the position of women within the society and culture of north west Wales and outlines how the second World War may have influenced their lives. This study highlights the importance of oral history in a feminist approach to historical study – not only in recovering women’s part in history but also on a personal level, in recovering and sharing some of the joy in the women’s lives.

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Women’s Studies Monographs, Series 2

Edited by Patricia Daniel

Llafur Cariad Llafur Rhad: Sefyllfa Manywod sy’n Gweithio’n Rhan Amser ym Maes Dysgu Cymraeg I Oedolion gan Sioned Huws

This body of work, written in Welsh, examines the role of women as low-paid, undervalued guardians of the Welsh language – a situation which is closely related to the current status of Welsh itself. This previously un-researched topic is one which has a great deal of significance for the future of Welsh-speaking Wales, highlighting as it does women’s actual potential contribution to the development of the Welsh language.

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The Changing Role and the Unchanging Status of the Secretary by Gail Kincaid

This study examines the evolution of the secretary and shows how this role has been, and still is, shaped by patriarchy and the capitalist ethos. The author compares representations of the secretary in history, literature and popular culture and triangulates this with the experiences of working secretaries.

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The First Step: Older Women Returning to Learn by Sue Trevelyan-Jones

Through questionnaires and in-depth interviews, the author examines the reasons why women over the age of 50 are returning to Further Education at Access level in the community. The study reveals the fractured nature of the women’s lives, the disadvantaged initial education of some and the way the earlier life decisions, influenced to varying extents by the then prevailing ideology of domesticity, have left them disadvantaged in comparison with both men and younger women.

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