British Female Emigration Societies and the New World, 1860-1914

This book focuses on the departure of Britain’s surplus” women to Australia and New Zealand organised by British female philanthropic societies, which were founded in order to assist and protect their strictly selected gentlewomen emigrants. Starting with an analysis of the surplus of women question in the national censuses and in the press, this book then explores the philanthropic nature of the organisations under study (the Female Middle Class Emigration Society, the Women’s Emigration Society, the British Women’s Emigration Association, and the Church Emigration Society). A study of the rigorous selection process imposed on the female middle-class emigrants is followed by an analysis of their marketing value, as well as an appraisal of women’s imperialism. Finally, this work proves that the colonies represented heterotopias of the Motherland, and that the female emigrants under study partook in the consolidation of the colonial middle-class.