ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the persistently difficult housing conditions under which domestic labour had to be performed in many mining communities. On marriage, the miner's wife almost always returned to housewifery and a strictly gendered division of labour in which women were subordinated to the wage-earning role of their men. There is also impressionistic evidence which indicates crossgender solidarity to ease the burdens of household management. Macintyre has suggested that gender relations were also characterised by a repressive sexual morality. However, demographic evidence that pre-marital sexual relations were not uncommon indicates the need for some qualification. The distinctive socialisation patterns influenced gender relations outside the household in the public domain. Nevertheless, under certain circumstances, the exclusion of women from the public domain was rudely broken down. During strikes, picketing of pits or blacklegs' houses often occurred in the communal space near houses which was indeterminately gendered territory.
