School of Historical and Philosophical Studies - Theses
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Item'Qual’è utile alla Città’: pizzochere networks, social ‘usefulness’, and female precarity in early modern Venice( 2020)This thesis provides the first dedicated study of the identity, social status, and social roles of pizzochere, or lay religious women, in early modern Venice. Pizzochere professed simple religious vows, usually to a mendicant order, and as professed laywomen lived a complex duality, neither fully secular nor fully religious; vita activa and vita contemplativa. Most also lived outside of the social statuses of wife (and mother and widow) or nun, the roles viewed as conventional for women. This thesis argues that pizzochere’s social position was, nonetheless, not only accepted, but perceived as integral to the proper functioning of the city. Drawing from archival, visual, literary, and architectural evidence, the thesis approaches pizzochere primarily through the concept of utilita, or usefulness, a concept raised surprisingly frequently with regard to these women. It asks what sort of women became pizzochere in sixteenth-century Venice, and how they were perceived by, and interacted with, their contemporary community. Bringing together histories of gender and women’s experiences, histories of lay devotional structures, and the related histories of charity, poor relief and hospitals, the thesis uses pizzochere, viewed as a kind of working woman, as a lens through which to explore the social and economic opportunities available to, and the experiences of, non-elite laywomen in early modern Venice more broadly. Situating these individual women and communities within the city and its other charitable, devotional, and social structures, both informal and governmental, reveals that pizzochere networks included and assisted women of widely varied social background, and filled a significant space in Venetians' approaches to the systemic vulnerabilities faced by women. The works that pizzochere undertook within the city for vocational fulfilment and income were tasks that were necessary and valued within the community. Consequently, pizzochere contributed, and were perceived to contribute, to establishing Venice's status as an ideal Christian state. The thesis highlights how women’s work served and sustained the early modern State, and how non-elite women’s agency operated in the early modern city.
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ItemHow to be a good wife in the Renaissance: a man's perspective( 2015)Women’s role in Renaissance Florence was defined by their marital status, and most women were married by their twentieth birthday. Finding a virtuous wife was a priority for those of elite status, and a number of texts written for an educated audience discuss the “ideal” or “good” wife. This thesis analyses this good wife in elite Renaissance Florentine families, in the period of 1361 to 1527, the timeframe from which the selected primary texts are from. This thesis also illuminates and evaluates the qualities that a good wife must possess, as prescribed by prominent Renaissance humanists, clerics and literary writers. This thesis draws from a number of Florentine sources that make reference to the good wife, overtly and didactically, or through implication. The sources range from the overtly circumscribable humanist and clerical tracts such as De Re Uxoria by Francesco Barbaro and Regola del Governo di Cura Familiare by Giovanni Dominici, essays written for instruction and circulation. This thesis also uses literary sources, such as Boccaccio’s De Mulieribus Claris and the Decamerone, Leon Battista Alberti’s I Libri della famiglia and Machiavelli’s Clizia and La Mandragola, and his short novella, Belfagor arcidiavolo. It also analyses less formal sources, such as San Bernardino’s 1427 Lenten sermons in order to gain an understanding of the advice given at all levels. These sources provide an insight into the behaviour, demeanour, and especially virtues that were encouraged by leading writers and social norms. There are a number of virtues considered to be ‘feminine’ virtues, all of which are marked by control and passivity. The aim of this thesis is to understand the importance placed on being a good wife, and the prescribed behaviour for married women in the Renaissance, especially in regards to the feminine virtues being encouraged and idealised. There are three virtues which are consistent across the nine sources studied, which this thesis focuses on in detail; obedience, chastity and love.
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ItemLabour pains: working-class women in employment, unions, and the Labor Party in Victoria, 1888-1914( 1987-05)This study focuses on the experiences of working-class women spanning the years from 1888 to 1914 - a period of significant economic growth and socio-political change in Victoria. The drift of population into the urban centres after the goldrush marked the beginning of a rapid and continual urban expansion in Melbourne as the city’s industrial and commercial sectors grew and diversified. Throughout the 1870s and 1880s, the increasing population provided a larger workforce which also represented a growing consumer market. The rise of the Victorian manufacturing industries in this period also saw the introduction of the modern factory system. With the increasing demand for unskilled labour in factories, it was not only men who entered this new factory workforce. Young women and older children were, for the first time, drawn in appreciable numbers into the industrial workforce as employers keenly sought their services as unskilled and cheap workers. Women were concentrated in specific areas of the labour market, such as the clothing, boot, food and drink industries, which became strictly areas of “women’s work”. In the early twentieth century, the rigid sexual demarcation of work was represented by gender-differentiated wages and employment provisions within industrial awards.
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ItemDeviant motherhood in the late nineteenth century: a case study of the trial and execution of Frances Knorr and Emma Williams for child murder( 2002)The 1890s saw the rise of a pro-natalist movement in Australia that focused on child saving and the emergence of the 'ideal mother' stereotype. Moves by the medical profession and women's organizations to educate women to become 'ideal' mothers were coupled with proscriptive attempts by law enforcement agencies and the judiciary to criminalize 'bad' mothers. Within this period Frances Knorr and Emma Williams became the archetypal 'deviant mother' when they were executed only months apart for crimes involving child murder. They were to be the only women ever hanged for such crimes in Victoria. This thesis aims to problematize these executions by looking at the ways in which nineteenth century Victorian society operated to construct these women's criminality. The thesis will argue that the growth of government intervention and regulation throughout the 1890s, beginning with the introduction of the Infant Life Protection Act in Victoria in 1890, engendered a climate whereby women were increasingly told to embrace motherhood as their sole vocation. 'Maternal instinct' became a central part of a woman’s identity. Advocates of maternal love succeeded in elevating the quality of the relationship between a mother and her child to a social and moral good. Moreover, the demonization of women such as Knorr and Williams was necessary to a process that saw the eventual idealization of the mother as 'the angel of the home' and 'the mother of the Empire'. Hence, whilst the State's preoccupation with regulating motherhood, pregnancy and birth was aimed at all classes, it was women of the lower working class who came under ever increasing scrutiny and who were the most likely to become scapegoats in a campaign to find and eradicate the 'bad' mother archetype. Above all, the trials and executions of these two women provided a site for the discursive production of femininity, motherhood and female criminality. The 1890s were a time of contesting notions of motherhood and womanhood. The newspapers, the judiciary and the Slate all engaged in the process which rendered the women under examination here, as deviant. Taking a Foucauldian approach, these women's bodies became the sites on which discourses concerning motherhood and womanhood were enacted. Furthermore, notions of gender become central to a process of criminalization in which both Knorr and Williams were depicted as less feminine because of their crimes. As a result the 'criminal' mother of the twentieth century was born.
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ItemWomen candidates: the 1996 Victorian local government elections( 1996)Recent reforms to local government in Victoria, Australia may have a range of consequences either unintended or unseen. This research focuses on the critical relationship between women and this new local government. The theoretical significance of women’s representation in local government concerns the extent to which women have equal representation in public decision making about local economies and social and community affairs. Previous research identifies women’s access to direct representation in government as being complicated by a number of factors although researchers agree that the best chances of electoral success for women lie with their tier said to be closest to the people: local government. This study is unique in the Australian examination of these issues in that, through replicating an extensive North American study, it explores the nature of candidacy rather than the characteristics of those successful at the polls. Using a survey of all women candidates for the Victorian local government elections, this study achieved a very high response rate. The resultant findings confirm those of the North American study, establishing a direct relationship between the number of women who stand and the number of women elected, confirming the electoral appeal of women. Of particular relevance is the question of incumbency or for the purpose of this study, prior successful candidacy. Women were found to have a much greater chance of success if they had prior standing as a local councillor. This study also suggests that rather than the particular qualities of the candidate, resources such as campaign budget and volunteers are influential on the outcome at polling day. The study concludes that the most effective strategy for achievement of equal representation for women in local government by the turn of the century, more effective than any political party attempts to date, will be the strategy that secures candidacy for 2000 women by the year 2000.