ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on women with unemployed partners: the authors' survey of 200 miners and their partners across the two communities indicated that around half of ex-miners remained unemployed 18 months after pit closure. It considers the experiences of women whose partners had found alternative employment, in order to explore some of the issues of the 'post-mining household'. The chapter looks at the nature of the ramifications for women of spouse redundancy, and thus continues the tradition of studying unemployment in the context of the household. It concerns the problems directly occasioned for women by the loss of their partners' employment. The chapter looks at how pit closure also impacts upon women's own independent relation to the local labour market. It concerns the problems occasioned for women by economic restructuring in general. The interview data from women in paid employment suggest that employment-related factors were significant sources of stress for them.
