# Welsh Mam > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Welsh_Mam > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Welsh_Mam.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welsh_Mam > Source revision: 1295716500 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) [[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](/source/Waldo_Williams), Welsh poet.]] The '''Welsh Mam''' (''mam'' means "mother" in [Welsh](/source/Welsh_language)) was an archetypal image of [Welsh](/source/Wales) married women, especially popular in 19th-century industrial [South Wales](/source/South_Wales), and depictions of that place and era. The mythologised Welsh Mam was seen as a matriarch{{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}} ruling her household,{{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}} "the pivot, around which all family life revolved".{{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}} In reality many Welsh women were economically dependent on male wage-earners, and suffered poverty and ill health exacerbated by regular childbearing.The Welsh Academy Encyclopedia of Wales. Cardiff: University of Wales Press 2008.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). == 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.{{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}}{{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}} == 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](/source/Richard_Llewellyn) 1939 novel ''[How Green Was My Valley](/source/How_Green_Was_My_Valley)''.[http://blogs.warwick.ac.uk/zoebrigley/entry/images_of_welsh/ Images of Welsh Women, 15/06/07] Actress [Rachel Thomas](/source/Rachel_Thomas_(actress)) often played Welsh mams in the 20th century, including roles in ''[The Proud Valley](/source/The_Proud_Valley)'' (1940), ''[How Green Was My Valley](/source/How_Green_Was_My_Valley_(TV_series)), [Under Milk Wood](/source/Under_Milk_Wood_(1972_film)),'' and the soap opera ''[Pobol y Cwm](/source/Pobol_y_Cwm).''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.{{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}} The character [Dilys Price](/source/Dilys_Price_(Fireman_Sam)) from ''[Fireman Sam](/source/Fireman_Sam)'' is considered a Welsh mam.{{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}} A 1997 [World of Groggs](/source/Grogg) clay figurine titled ''The Welsh Mam'' is in the collection of [Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales](/source/Amgueddfa_Cymru_%E2%80%93_Museum_Wales).{{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}} ==See also== * [Culture of Wales](/source/Culture_of_Wales) * [Welsh people](/source/Welsh_people) * [Welsh literature](/source/Welsh-language_literature) * [History of Wales](/source/History_of_Wales) * [Gender role](/source/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](/source/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 --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Welsh Mam](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welsh_Mam) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welsh_Mam?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.