In January 1999, the Canadian government announced their withdrawal from the Cape Breton mining industry with a settlement package for redundant miners, which was considered inadequate by miners and their families. In response, a group of women organized a community-based campaign, United Families (UF), led by two women who traveled to Ottawa to meet national politicians presenting themselves explicitly as “miners’ wives.” While the UF located their campaign within the context of family and community, as expected of miners’ wives, their principal focus was the men disadvantaged by the settlement. Here they strayed onto the terrain of the men's union.

To support their case the women took photographs of miners leaving the pit at the end of a shift and organized them into an album. This became a catalyst for the disjuncture between the gendered expectations associated with female roles, and the women's efforts to represent the interests of the men. Intended as objective evidence in support of their position, the photographs carried a range of complex emotions relating to the women's campaign: They expressed the subjective meanings of the women's relationship with mining and the men photographed, as well as providing material evidence of the condition of the miners. This subjectivity was overlaid onto gendered subtexts inscribed within the history of photography in the public and domestic spheres.

In campaign negotiations the women struggled to control the meaning of the photographic images and their endeavors resulted in only very minor amendments to the original settlement. The UF women's creative use of photography ultimately undermined the legitimacy of the women's negotiations. However, the photographs remain a testament to the history of mining in Cape Breton and to the emotional commitment of women to a partnership with men forged through the sexual division of labor in coal mining.

This article draws upon a range of evidence and theories of gender, activism, and photographic practice to analyze the ways in which the women were disadvantaged in their campaign.

1999年1月，加拿大政府宣布退出布雷顿角采矿业，并为多余矿工提供了一项解决方案，但矿工及其家人认为该方案不够充分。作为回应，一群妇女组织了一场名为“团结家庭”(UF) 的社区运动，由两名妇女领导，她们前往渥太华会见明确将自己描绘成“矿工妻子”的国家政客。尽管正如矿工妻子所期望的那样，佛罗里达大学将他们的运动置于家庭和社区的背景下，但他们的主要关注点是因和解而处于不利地位的男性。在这里，他们误入了男子联盟的领地。

为了支持她们的观点，妇女们拍摄了下班后离开矿坑的矿工的照片，并将它们整理成一本相册。这成为与女性角色相关的性别期望与女性代表男性利益的努力之间脱节的催化剂。这些照片旨在作为支持其立场的客观证据，承载着一系列与妇女运动相关的复杂情感：它们表达了妇女与采矿业和被拍摄的男性关系的主观意义，并提供了有关妇女状况的物质证据。矿工们。这种主观性被掩盖在公共和家庭领域摄影史上铭刻的性别潜台词上。

在竞选谈判中，妇女们努力控制照片的含义，她们的努力只导致对最初的解决方案进行了非常小的修改。佛罗里达大学妇女对摄影的创造性运用最终破坏了妇女谈判的合法性。然而，这些照片仍然证明了布雷顿角的采矿历史，以及女性通过煤炭开采中的性别分工与男性建立伙伴关系的情感承诺。

本文利用一系列关于性别、行动主义和摄影实践的证据和理论来分析女性在竞选活动中处于不利地位的方式。