 With an economy fundamentally dependent upon a single industry , there was a scarcity of paid employment for women in Rhondda 's <unk> heyday . The Encyclopaedia of Wales notes that the image of the Welsh Mam , a wife and mother constantly at home and exalted as the queen of the household , was essentially a Rhondda creation . However the Rhondda did produce the suffragette and social reformer Elizabeth Andrews , one of only nine women among a list of a hundred greatest Welsh heroes chosen by ballot in 2004 . 
