The 'Inferior' Sex in the Dominant Race
Feminist Subversions or Imperial Apologies
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3945854 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jenny Coleman (corresponding author) |
| Year | 2012 |
| Volume | 102 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 62-78 |
| Publication date | 2012-11-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Feminist Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0141-7789 • E-ISSN: 1466-4380 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1057/fr.2012.13 |
| OpenAlex | W2332269835 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 14 |
Nineteenth-century imperialist discourses constructed European colonisation of indigenous inhabitants as an inevitable and necessary process for the progress of the colonies and the extension of the British Empire. Within this construct, imperialist and patriarchal discourses intersected to construct 'white women' in a manner that denied them legitimacy as autonomous individuals but simultaneously positioned them as actors within the imperial endeavour. Recent feminist scholarship has extended this historiography by considering how some women in nineteenth-century New Zealand were complexly positioned as both agents and critics of colonisation, involved in imperial strategies and yet disruptive of practices of cultural assimilation of Maori. This article furthers this scholarship through an illustrative case study of one woman who embodied this complex positioning within patriarchal and imperialist discourses. English-born wife of the first Chief Justice of New Zealand, and outspoken critic of colonial policies associated with government appropriation of Maori land, Mary Ann Martin was actively involved in establishing Anglican training institutions for young Maori men and women, and in dispensing medical assistance to Maori. Examination of her positioning on the margins of imperial discourses offers an opportunity to consider the operation of colonialism as a discourse implicated by gendered, racialised identities. Detailed textual analyses of selected extracts of her reminiscences of her 34-year residence in New Zealand, which focus on her positioning as a member of the 'inferior' sex in the dominant race, offer an opportunity to examine the ways in which she simultaneously challenged and reinforced Victorian prescriptions of respectable womanhood; how her views on and interactions with Maori may have destabilised accepted notions of women's appropriate spheres of influence; and the extent to which her challenges to dominant views on race relations may have been inflected by her positioning within gendered discourses of femininity
Appropriation · British Empire · Colonialism · Empire · Historiography · Indigenous · Patriarchy · Political science · Privilege (computing) · Scholarship · Sociology · Australian History and Society · Canadian Identity and History · Gender Studies · Law
ONE. Carnal Knowledge and Imperial Power
Making Imperial Mentalities
Gender, Culture and Empire
European Women and the Second British Empire
The New Oxford History of New Zealand
Gendering resistance
Happy english children”
Hear an indian sister’s plea”
Empire, 'the Civilising Mission' and Indigenous Christian Women in Colonial Victoria
European Women and the Second British Empire
The New Zealand Wars and the Victorian Interpretation of Racial Conflict
African-American Women's History and the Metalanguage of Race
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,2 |
| Citation span | 2021 - 2021 (1) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |