A career in christian charity

Women's benevolence and the public sphere in a mid-nineteenth-century Canadian city

Bibliographic Data

ID4348486
AuthorsCarmen Varty (corresponding author)
Year2005
Volume14
Issue2
Pages243-264
Publication date2005-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueWomen s History Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0961-2025 • E-ISSN: 1747-583X
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/09612020500200825
OpenAlexW4244080438
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited9

This article investigates the relationship between women's charitable work and the public sphere, focusing on the Hamilton Ladies Benevolent Society which operated in nineteenth-century Ontario. It argues that although women were barred from participation in the public sphere by patriarchal notions of ‘reason' and ‘independence,’ charitable associations offered political schooling wherein women internalized and problematized ‘publicness.’ An investigation of the annual reports of the Hamilton Ladies Benevolent Society and Orphan Asylum reveals that charitable women used particular discursive tactics and techniques of display to make claims upon the public sphere. In their attempt to appear public – universal, rational, and in pursuit of an objective, common good – these women rejected the tropes of true womanhood and evoked Christian metaphors to justify their activities. For these women, Christianity provided the language with which they claimed universality, rationality and even citizenship

Christianity · Citizenship · Political science · Politics · Private sphere · Public sphere · Rationality · Sociology · Canadian Identity and History · Gender Studies · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes · Law · Philosophy · Religion, Gender, and Enlightenment · Religious studies

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