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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:The Crying Need of South Africa: The Emigration of Single British Women to the Transvaal, 1901-1910
Authors:Van Helten, Jean J.ISNI
Williams, Keith
Year:1983
Periodical:Journal of Southern African Studies
Volume:10
Issue:1
Period:October
Pages:17-38
Language:English
Geographic term:South Africa
Subjects:colonists
British
women migrants
History and Exploration
Women's Issues
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/2636814
Abstract:Between 1901 and 1910, over four thousand single women left Britain for South Africa by assisted and 'protected' emigration through the medium of the major women's emigration societies. Over half of these women were settled in the Transvaal. Most were destined for domestic service on the Witwatersrand. In the 1900s the status of women in Britain and the demands placed upon them by patriarchy were determined to some extent by the exigencies of empire - in particular by the necessity of breeding an imperial 'race' fit to compete with other imperial 'races' in an era when population was increasingly being equated with power. Moreoever, the ideology of 'imperial motherhood' was parallelled by and shared common ground with one which prompted the emigration of British women to the white settler colonies, including South Africa. The assisted emigration of women from Britain was organized by women but with the connivance of metropolitan and colonial states and in realisation of an imperialist and patriarchal ideology, which may have contributed to the self-image of women in colonial societies. Notes, tab.
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