Gender,nation and party: an uneasy alliance for Welsh nationalism

This article draws upon new research exploring the relationship between gender and political nationalism in Wales. It is set within the changed political and institutional context of Wales, provided by the establishment in May 1999 of the National Assembly, the first democratic legislature in Wales for nearly 600 years. In studying leading women politicians from Plaid Cymru, it isolates potential tensions between gender and mainstream party political nationalism. It also begins to assess the specific influence of gender to contemporary Welsh nationalist politics. Its conclusions confirm the paradigm of a distinctive female experience of Welsh nationalism and point to a number of specific issues (scarce access to power resources and the myth of party unity) which distinguish women's experience of Welsh nationalism. The article concludes that an ‘uneasy alliance’ exists between gender, nation and party within Welsh nationalism, which is some way from resolution