Emigrant Gentlewomen Genteel Poverty and Female Emigration, 1830-1914 Routledge Library Editions: The Victorian World Series

First published in 1979. This book examines the distressed gentlewoman stereotype, primarily through a study of the experience of emigration among single middle-class women between 1830 and 1914. Based largely on a study of government and philanthropic emigration projects, it argues that the image of the downtrodden resident governess does inadequate justice to Victorian middle-class women?s responses to the experience of economic and social decline and to insufficient female employment opportunities. This title will be of interest to students of history.

List of Tables; Abbreviations; Preface; Introduction; 1. The Problem of the Distressed Gentlewoman 2. Pioneer Emigrants, 1832-1836 3. Mary Taylor in New Zealand: A Case Study 4. Emigration and Respectability, 1849-1853 5. Feminism and Female Emigration, 1861-1886 6. Emigration Propaganda and the Distressed Gentlewoman, 1880-1914; Appendix I: Comparison of British and Colonial Occupations of Middle-Class Emigrants, 1832-1836; Appendix II: ‘To England’s Daughters’ Dora Gore Browne; Bibliography; Index