The imperial woman’s colonising mission: making space in three colonial crises

The imperial woman’s colonising mission: making space in three colonial crises

The aim of this thesis is to apply a postcolonial gender perspective to the writings of British women during crises in the nineteenth century. Using this theoretical framework, this thesis addresses a gap in research as it explores the perspectives and actions of women across three colonial outposts of the British Empire, to understand how crises in a concentrated span of time affected the roles and perceptions of these women. By tracking patterns and inconsistencies across the case studies of conflicts in Australia, India and New Zealand, the thesis highlights how crises could and did affect each other, providing incentive and space for British women to grow into roles previously denied them in a male-dominated world. Having positioned the women within the intersectional categories of class, race and gender, this thesis provides a wider purview of the barriers British women encountered and how Victorian femininity was used to create space for their politically independent perceptions, new opportunities and public voices. Crises are found to have been an opportunity for British women to adapt and change their actions and perceptions. This examination of select diaries, memoirs and letters gives insight into how these literate women manipulated and expanded the category of femininity to promote their wide range of capabilities.