The mythologised Welsh Mam was seen as a matriarch[1] ruling her household,[2] "the pivot, around which all family life revolved".
[3] In reality many Welsh women were economically dependent on male wage-earners, and suffered poverty and ill health exacerbated by regular childbearing.
[6][7] 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.
[9][10] The character Dilys Price from Fireman Sam is considered a Welsh mam.
[11] A 1997 World of Groggs clay figurine titled The Welsh Mam is in the collection of Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales.