Space, authority and the female emigrant afloat

Abstract

In the latter half of the nineteenth century, all emigrants travelling out to the Australian colonies experienced a range of measures designed for their protection. As well as physical protection, the future roles of single emigrant women, as paid domestic labour or, ultimately, as unpaid wives and mothers, required that the care accorded to them also took on social and moral concerns. This paper discusses the shipboard structures, particularly spatial arrangements, that were designed both to protect emigrant women in transit to the colonies and to protect the colonial investment.