ABSTRACT
This chapter is based on ESRC funded research From the Coal Face to the Car Park? Intersections of Class and Gender in the North East of England (2007–2009), which charts the gendered, generational transitions from the industrial landscapes of one or two generations ago, to a current present and ‘regenerated’ future (Nayak, 2003; Taylor and Addison, 2009, 2011). In aiming to capture manifold intersections of history, geography and economy, a multi-dimensional approach is adopted to explore middle-class and working-class women’s lives between the ages of 16–85 years in the context of de-industrialization and the transition to a post-industrial economy, where processes of ‘fitting into place’ are subject to contestation (Taylor and Addison, 2009; Taylor 2012a). The project involved in-depth interviews and focus groups with ninety-seven women across class backgrounds living in a range of urban, suburban and rural locales across the North East (see Taylor and Addison, 2009, 2011; Taylor, 2012 for more thorough methodological detail). This chapter explores the lived and reported realities of young women within the North East of England, who composed approximately one-third of the sample.
