Thesis
Gender, loss, and memory : women’s experiences of deindustrialisation in the West of Scotland textile industry since 1970
- Creator
- Rights statement
- Awarding institution
- University of Strathclyde
- Date of award
- 2024
- Thesis identifier
- T16879
- Person Identifier (Local)
- 201857811
- Qualification Level
- Qualification Name
- Department, School or Faculty
- Abstract
- The process of deindustrialisation has been intrinsically linked to male dominated industries such as coalmining, shipbuilding, and steelworks during the 1970s and 1980s. However, women have also experienced deindustrialisation, most prominently in the one sector in which they dominated - textiles. The industry experienced an intense period of deindustrialisation in the late 1990s with 40,000 textile jobs lost in Britain in 1999 alone. In this period, Scotland experienced over 3,000 job losses with Bairdwear closing their garment factories in Glasgow, Daks Simpson closing their factory in Larkhall, and Coats Viyella closing their garment factory in Alloa. Yet it is the case that the experience of the textile industry has remained relatively absent, in a British context, from the discussions around industrial communities’ experiences of deindustrialisation.Through the use of oral history testimony from women textile workers, this thesis critically assesses their working lives in the textile industry. In explores how women’s working lives were profoundly altered during the last third of the twentieth century as a result of the growth of automation and technology on the factory floor which limited their autonomy, deskilled their labour, and facilitated the downscaling of the industry in the 1980s and early 1990s. Moreover, the thesis critically examines the textile industry’s experience of intensive deindustrialisation during the late 1990s and early 2000s. It argues that the industry experienced trade-induced deindustrialisation, emanating from the phasing out of the protectionist Multi Fibre Arrangement which resulting in the significant offshoring of tens of thousands of textile jobs from Britain to the global South and eastern Europe. The thesis aims to move the analysis beyond a head count and contends with the deep-seated legacies of deindustrialisation, including how it is popularly conceived in the national consciousness, how it is represented in heritage institutions, and how it is reflected in cultural representations of working-class life in Scotland. Ultimately, the thesis advances the case that there remains significant work to be done to mainstream women’s experiences into the dominant conceptualisation of deindustrialisation.
- Advisor / supervisor
- Kelly, Laura, 1986-
- McIvor, Arthur
- Resource Type
- DOI
- Date Created
- 2023
- Funder
关系
项目
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PDF of thesis T16879 | 2024-06-26 | 公开 | 下载 |
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File | 2024-06-26 | 非公开 |