Welsh Mam

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The Welsh Mam (mam means "mother" in Welsh) was an archetypal image of Welsh married women that emerged in 19th century industrial South Wales. Described as "hardworking, ‘pious’ and clean, a mother to her sons and responsible for the home", this image of women was depicted in Richard Llewellyn's 1939 novel How Green Was My Valley.[1] The mythologised Welsh Mam was seen as a matriarch ruling her household, but in reality many Welsh women were economically dependent upon male wage-earners, and suffered poverty and ill health exacerbated by regular childbearing.[2]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Images of Welsh Women, 15/06/07
  2. ↑ The Welsh Academy Encyclopedia of Wales. Cardiff: University of Wales Press 2008.
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