Emigrant Gentlewomen

Book excerpt: 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.