[[File:Teulu_Angharad_mam_Waldo.jpg|thumb|Angharad Jones Williams (1876–1932), seated second from left, with her family arranged around her for a portrait photograph from 1892. She was mother of Waldo Williams, Welsh poet.]] The '''Welsh Mam''' (''mam'' means "mother" in Welsh) was an archetypal image of Welsh married women, especially popular in 19th-century industrial South Wales, and depictions of that place and era.
The mythologised Welsh Mam was seen as a matriarch<ref>{{Cite web|last=Austin|first=Craig|date=2013-11-28|title=Are Mothers Saints? The Role of the Matriarch in Welsh Society|url=https://www.walesartsreview.org/are-mothers-saints-the-role-of-the-matriarch-in-welsh-society/|access-date=2020-07-29|website=Wales Arts Review|language=en-US}}</ref> ruling her household,<ref>{{Cite web|date=2016-03-05|title=Why Wales is as much Land of Our Mothers as Our Fathers|url=https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/news-opinion/mothers-day-approaches-must-remember-10993957|access-date=2020-07-29|website=WalesOnline}}</ref> "the pivot, around which all family life revolved".<ref>{{Cite book|last=Beddoe|first=Deirdre|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uI62AAAAIAAJ&q=mam|title=Out of the Shadows: A History of Women in Twentieth-century Wales|date=2000|publisher=University of Wales Press|isbn=978-0-7083-1591-0|pages=148|language=en}}</ref> In reality many Welsh women were economically dependent on male wage-earners, and suffered poverty and ill health exacerbated by regular childbearing.<ref>The Welsh Academy Encyclopedia of Wales. Cardiff: University of Wales Press 2008.</ref><ref>Carradice, Phil. [https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/wales/entries/f47cdfaa-06c1-3edf-9750-c6002f6daa55 "The role of the 'Welsh Mam' through history"] ''BBC Wales'' (28 March 2014).</ref>
== In the news == Women described as "Welsh mams" were seen in clashes with police and organizing family relief during the Welsh Miners Strike of 1984.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Kemp|first=Laura|date=2015-03-10|title=This Mother's Day Welsh Mams are just as adored as ever|url=https://www.walesonline.co.uk/lifestyle/lifestyle-opinion/mothers-day-welsh-mams-just-8806452|access-date=2020-07-29|website=walesonline}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Leeworthy|first=Daryl|date=2012-10-01|title=The secret life of us: 1984, the miners' strike and the place of biography in writing history 'from below'|url=https://doi.org/10.1080/13507486.2012.719009|journal=European Review of History: Revue européenne d'histoire|volume=19|issue=5|pages=825–846|doi=10.1080/13507486.2012.719009|s2cid=159709080|issn=1350-7486|url-access=subscription}}</ref>
== Examples in popular culture == The Welsh mam was described as "hardworking, pious and clean, a mother to her sons and responsible for the home", in Richard Llewellyn's 1939 novel ''How Green Was My Valley''.<ref>[http://blogs.warwick.ac.uk/zoebrigley/entry/images_of_welsh/ Images of Welsh Women, 15/06/07]</ref> Actress Rachel Thomas often played Welsh mams in the 20th century, including roles in ''The Proud Valley'' (1940), ''How Green Was My Valley, Under Milk Wood,'' and the soap opera ''Pobol y Cwm.''<ref>Ffrancon, Gwenno. "‘The Angel in the Home?: Rachel Thomas, Siân Phillips and the on-screen embodiment of the Welsh Mam’" ''The Transactions of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion'' 2009, vol. 16 (2010), 110-22.</ref><ref>{{Cite news|last=Fiddick|first=Peter|date=1988-07-04|title=Mam's Welcome in the Hillside|pages=23|work=The Guardian|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/56316878/mams-welcome-in-the-hillsidepeter/|access-date=2020-07-29|via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> The character Dilys Price from ''Fireman Sam'' is considered a Welsh mam.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Harries |first=Robert |date=2022-03-27 |title=The 12 iconic Welsh 'mams' from TV and film that bring a smile to our face |url=https://www.walesonline.co.uk/lifestyle/tv/12-iconic-welsh-mams-tv-23484478 |access-date=2023-02-15 |website=WalesOnline |language=en}}</ref>
A 1997 World of Groggs clay figurine titled ''The Welsh Mam'' is in the collection of Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Welsh Mam (sculpture)|url=https://museum.wales/collections/online/object/c8ef6271-1472-330a-9338-bca436573185|access-date=2020-07-29|website=National Museum Wales|language=en}}</ref>
==See also== * Culture of Wales * Welsh people * Welsh literature * History of Wales * Gender role
==References== {{reflist}}
== External links ==
* Rebecca Davies, ''[https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/6117429.pdf “Not Just Supporting But Leading”: The Involvement of the Women of the South Wales Coalfield in the 1984-85 Miners’ Strike]'' (PhD thesis, University of Glamorgan 2010). * Deirdre Beddoe, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=gy_OuAAACAAJ&q=Deirdre+Beddoe Munitionettes, Maids and Mams: Women in Wales, 1914-1939]'' (1991).
Category:Culture of Wales Category:History of women in Wales Category:19th century in Wales