[loop1988]

Hey
I have to complete a 2000 word essay on How significant was women's activism in the miners' strike of 1984/5?

I am aware that I have to critically analysis the importance of the women's input, however I am sure if the question is asking me to explore how significant women's activism was to social issues, such as the break in traditional female roles and other future social issues, such as the miner's women participating in politics for the first time etc.

Im not sure how to break down the question, to include everything my teacher is asking for

Many thanks

[MrJohnDClare]

This is one of those essays where your introduction needs to be a section defining the question - not because you need to define the quesiton, but because you need to protect yourself! if you start off by saying what the question means, then you are safer from the teacher claiming that you missed various areas out of your answer.


For me, if I were doing this essay, the key word is 'in'.
If the question had been about the significance of women's activism FOR to TO the miner's strike, then your essay would have been exclusively about how they helped the strike, what they did for the men etc. The focus would have had to be exclusively on the events of the strike.
A question about the significance of women's activism DURING the miner's strike, would have needed a much wider essay, talking not only about developments related to the strike, but about other development at that time.

But your question is about the significance of women's activism IN the miner's strike.
I don't know about you (it's your essay so you must decide), but I think that means:
1. You need to say how they helped the strike
2. You need to talk about the wider social developments which women's activism caused in the mining communities during the strike.
3. You are NOT required to go by area beyond the mining communities - or at least the areas affected by the strike
4. You are NOT required to go by date beyond the end of the strike
(You are welcome to disagree with me - what matters is that you declare upfront what the question means to you.)


'Significance' is something which is increasingly a la mode in History nowadays - without people really understand exactly what it means.
It seems to mean more than 'importance' - I suspect that colloquially we use it most to mean: 'having lasting effects of moment' -- and as soon as you say this, of course, you are into judgement, because what is 'of moment'.
I teach that five factors make a thing significant:

• Revealing - does it tell you a lot about that time/ is it exemplary of its era?
  
• Results - how big an effect did it have at the time/eventually
  
• Remarkable - was it noticed at the time/ how attention-drawing, out-of-the-ordinary was it?
  
• Remembered - was it significant enough to still be remembered today?
  
• Relevant - are its issue still important issues today - it is 'resonant' to our situation - has it any lessons to teach us today?

The easy way to address this topic would be simply to go through the women's involvement, input by input, for each measuring its significance - perhaps by these five yardsticks.
Then at the end finish with a summary overviewing the different involvements, and coming to a conclusion about the overall significance.


By the way, I found some lovely info simply by googling
women in the 1984 miners' strike
espcially this site.