Imperial plots : women, land, and the spadework of British colonialism on the Canadian Prairies / Sarah Carter.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Carter, Sarah, 1954- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Women--Prairie Provinces--Social conditions.

Women.

Agriculture--Prairie Provinces--History--20th century.

Agriculture.

Women pioneers--Prairie Provinces--History--20th century.

Women pioneers.

Frontier and pioneer life--Prairie Provinces.

Frontier and pioneer life.

Minority women--Prairie Provinces--Social conditions--20th century.

Minority women.

Prairie Provinces--Race relations--History--20th century.

Prairie Provinces.

Prairie Provinces--Ethnic relations--History--20th century.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (481 pages) : illustrations, tables

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Winnipeg, Manitoba : University of Manitoba Press, 2016.

Summary:

Sarah Carter's "Imperial Plots: Women, Land, and the Spadework of British Colonialism on the Canadian Prairies" examines the goals, aspirations, andchallenges met by women who sought land of their own.Supporters of British women homesteaders argued they would contribute to the "spade-work" of the Empire through their imperial plots, replacing foreign settlers and relieving Britain of its "surplus" women. Yet far into the twentieth century there was persistent opposition to the idea that women could or should farm: British women were to be exemplars of an idealized white femininity, not toiling in the fields. In Canada, heated debates about women farmers touched on issues of ethnicity, race,gender, class, and nation.Despite legal and cultural obstacles and discrimination, British women did acquire land as homesteaders, farmers, ranchers, and speculators on the Canadian prairies. They participated in the project of dispossessing Indigenous people. Their complicity was, however, ambiguous and restricted because they were excluded from the power and privileges of their male counterparts.Imperial Plots depicts the female farmers and ranchers of the prairies, from the Indigenous women agriculturalists of the Plains to the array of women who resolved to work on the land in the first decades of the twentieth century.

Contents:

Cover

Contents

List of Illustrations

List of Tables

Acknowledgements

List of Abbreviations

Note on Terminology

Introduction

Chapter 1. Narrowing Opportunities for Women: From the Indigenous Farmers of the Great Plains to the Exclusions of the Homestead Regime

Chapter 2. "Land Owners and Enterprising Settlers in the Colonies": British Women Farmers for Canada

Chapter 3. Widows and Other Immigrant Women Homesteaders: Struggles and Strategies

Chapter 4. Women Who Bought Land: The "Bachelor Girl" Settler, "Jack" May, and Other Celebrity Farmers and Ranchers

Chapter 5. Answering the Call of Empire: Georgina Binnie-Clark, Farmer, Author, Lecturer

Chapter 6. "Daughters of British Blood" or "Hordes of Men of Alien Race"?: The Homesteads-For-British-Women Campaign

Chapter 7. The Persistence of a "Curiously Strong Prejudice": From the First World War to the Great Depression

Conclusion

Notes

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780887558184

0887558186

OCLC:

953332141