ABSTRACT
The ‘dig’ stands out in the British general public’s perceptions of archaeology. It pre-eminently attracts students and ‘amateurs’ to the discipline. Volunteer archaeology has substantial numbers of females associated with excavation and fieldwork, and popular archaeology, particularly in keeping with recent television portrayals, has numerous female participants and presenters. By contrast, contract ‘rescue’ fieldwork (developer-funded fieldwork), which comprises the bulk of fieldwork undertaken in Britain today, is a stereotypically male activity. Given that by popular tradition, fieldwork is the hallmark of archaeology, this imbalance renders the traditionally more strongly female-oriented activities, such as finds processing work and lab work and analysis, as potentially less prestigious and undervalued (Conkey 1991: 26; Garrow et al 1994: 198).
