The
Welsh Mam (
mam means "mother" in
Welsh language) was an archetypal image of
Wales married women, especially popular in 19th-century industrial
South Wales, and depictions of that place and era.
The mythologised Welsh Mam was seen as a matriarch[The Welsh Academy Encyclopedia of Wales. Cardiff: University of Wales Press 2008.][Carradice, Phil. "The role of the 'Welsh Mam' through history" BBC Wales (28 March 2014).]
In the news
Women described as "Welsh mams" were seen in clashes with police and organizing family relief during the Welsh Miners Strike of 1984.
Examples in popular culture
The Welsh mam was described as "hardworking, pious and clean, a mother to her sons and responsible for the home", in Richard Llewellyn's 1939 novel
How Green Was My Valley.
[ Images of Welsh Women, 15/06/07] Actress Rachel Thomas often played Welsh mams in the 20th century, including roles in
The Proud Valley (1940),
How Green Was My Valley, Under Milk Wood, and the soap opera
Pobol y Cwm.[Ffrancon, Gwenno. "‘The Angel in the Home?: Rachel Thomas, Siân Phillips and the on-screen embodiment of the Welsh Mam’" The Transactions of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion 2009, vol. 16 (2010), 110-22.] The character Dilys Price from
Fireman Sam is considered a Welsh mam.
A 1997 Grogg clay figurine titled The Welsh Mam is in the collection of Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales.
See also
External links
