School of Historical and Philosophical Studies - Theses
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ItemGlory boxes: femininity, domestic consumption and material culture in Australia, 1930-1960( 2009)This thesis investigates glory boxes as cultural sites of consumption, production, femininity, sexuality, economy and transnationalism between 1930 and 1960 in Australia, a period of considerable economic and social change. Glory boxes were the containers and collections kept and accumulated by many young single women in anticipation of their future married and domestic lives. The nature and manifestations of the glory box tradition have uniquely Australian qualities, which had its roots in many European and British customs of marriage preparation and female property. This study explores a number of facets of women's industrial, communal, creative and sexual lives within Australian and international historical contexts. These contexts influenced glory box traditions in terms of industrialisation, changing consumer practices, the economics of depression and war, and evolving social definitions of femininity and female sexuality. Glory boxes provide an effective prism through which to scrutinise these broad social and economic developments during a thirty year period, and to highlight the participation of young women in cultural practices relating to glory box production in preparation for marriage. Oral testimony from migrant and Australian-born women, the material culture of glory boxes and the objects collected, and popular contemporary magazines and newspapers provide important documentation of the significance of glory box practices for many Australian women in the mid-twentieth century. Glory boxes track twentieth-century shifts in Australia in terms of a producer and consumer economy at both collective and individual levels. They reveal the enduring social expectations until at least the 1960s that the role of women was seen as primarily that of wives, mothers and domestic household managers. Nonetheless, a close investigation of the meanings of glory box collections for women has uncovered simultaneous and contradictory social values that recognised the sexual potential of women, while shrouding their bodies in secrecy. This thesis suggests that a community of glory box practitioners worked through a variety of collective female environments which crossed time, place, generation and culture. It demonstrates the impact of the act of migrating on glory box practices which were brought in the luggage and memories of many post-war migrant women to Australia. These practices were maintained, adapted and lost through the pragmatics of separation, relocation and acts of cultural integration. This research has identified the experiences of young single women as critical to expanding understandings of the history of domestic consumption in Australia, and the gendered associations it was accorded within popular culture. It has also repositioned the glory box tradition as an important, widely practised female activity within feminist historiography, by recognising its legitimacy as female experience, and as a complex and ambivalent symbol which defies simplistic interpretations.
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ItemIn her gift: activism and altruism in Australian women's philanthropy 1880-2005( 2008)This thesis examines the experiences of Australian women philanthropists who donated money to social causes and public institutions in the decades from the late nineteenth to the beginning of the twenty-first century. In a colonial society where wealth generation and its disposal was essentially the province of men, a small but significant number of women who were wives and daughters of men of substance found themselves in a position to use family resources for their own chosen philanthropic ends. They did so in a context of colonial women's activism through women's associations, and derived motivation from their religious faith. Australian women's philanthropy drew upon British and American traditions. The remarkable wealth generation of the industrialising United States underwrote philanthropic women's very considerable donations, deployed with a moral authority that was fostered by evangelical Protestantism. Likewise, in Britain, evangelical work was supplemented by funding from elite wealthy women who could access familial fortunes. Australian women's philanthropy was distinctive because, despite the country's comparatively modest prosperity, the energetic and pragmatic association of women around philanthropic causes, often with a religious imperative, emboldened women of independent means to become exceptional givers. In the first half of the twentieth century, possibilities for women's active involvement in philanthropy expanded. Women in Australia gained political citizenship for federal elections in 1902, and by 1908, had been awarded political rights in each state. The 'new woman citizen' was able to assume a stronger profile in the workforce, in the professions and in business; social change that was mirrored in the activism of women philanthropists. Rapid economic growth after World War Two, and a developing national consciousness of the importance of philanthropic endeavours saw the backgrounds of women philanthropists diversify, just as a new women's movement arose to challenge and reshape women's public roles. There are undeniable continuities in women's philanthropy from the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries: in direct giving and fundraising, in commitment to women's causes, and in the influence of religion. Nevertheless, by 2005, women were sustaining an unprecedented and outstanding presence, not only as individual philanthropists, but in the highest levels of decision-making in an arena increasingly referred to as the 'third sector' of the economy. They have assumed a central role in the growing number of Australian philanthropic foundations and in the shaping of policies on funding for social change. Moreover there are clear signs that the influence of women in philanthropy, as in other public spheres including mainstream politics, will amplify in future. In investigating the development of women's philanthropy in Australia, with a focus on those who had money within their gift, this thesis profiles over fifty women with specific reference to Mrs Anne Bon, Janet Lady Clarke, Mrs Ivy Brookes, Dr Una Porter, Ms Barbara Blackman, Dame Elisabeth Murdoch, and Ms Jill Reichstein.
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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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ItemFrom Australia with love: Australian romance novels, 1950-2000( 2001)Mass market romance fiction has attracted considerable scholarly attention, much of it unfavourable. Some scholars have accused it of perpetuating the subjection of women, of setting up inappropriate role models and unattainable (not to mention undesirable) goals for its readers. Others have seen in the popular romance, exemplified by the output of f-Harlequin Mills & Boon, the obliteration of individual difference with authors following a template or formula to produce an undifferentiated and unchanging product, to be consumed by an undiscriminating public. My thesis examines the romance novel in general, suggesting that the 'global phenomenon' is not as uniform as the term implies and revealing national differences in the publishing, marketing, authorship and readership. I argue that as well as being nationally distinctive, the production and consumption of romance fiction have not remained constant over time. I challenge the perception of these texts as unchanging and uniform, presenting evidence of change over time and differences within the work of individuals as well as between writers. I argue that within this diversity romance novels can be found which strongly endorse women’s rights and aspirations. I suggest that the world-view proposed by many novelists is more progressive than many critics have discerned, notably in terms of gender and race relations. The belief that the global appeal of romance fiction as entails the loss of national distinctiveness is also questionable. My thesis explores the Australianness of Australian mass market romance novels of the latter half of the twentieth century. I argue that the output of Australian authors remains distinct from that of American and British writers. There is an ‘Australian voice’ and it reflects and interprets Australian society for a local and world readership. Romance writers commonly assert that they reflect ‘community attitudes’ rather than attempting to change them. My thesis examines this claims in terms of the values implicitly and explicitly endorsed and concludes that the Australian romance novel of the end of the twentieth century reflects the more liberal and enlightened end of the spectrum of Australian public opinion.