Miners, masculinity and the "Bataille du Charbon" in France, 1944-1948.

In 1944, the French provisional government, backed by the Parti communiste français and the Confédération générale du travail, undertook an aggressive propaganda campaign to persuade miners to embark upon a 'battle for coal' which raised their efforts in extracting coal to that of a national endeavour. At the same time, miners had great hopes that nationalisation of the coal industry, under discussion at this time, would bring significant improvement to their working lives. In identifying the ways in which publicists posited miners as an ideal of working-class manhood, this article will argue that "la bataille du charbon" marks a crucial moment in the celebration of working-class masculinity and that the "statut des mineurs" which was passed in 1946 as a part of nationalisation enshrined many of the existing gender assumptions about mining life.