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Imperial Plots: Women, Land, and the Spadework of British Colonialism on the Canadian Prairies
Sarah Carter’s "Imperial Women, Land, and the Spadework of British Colonialism on the Canadian Prairies" examines the goals, aspirations, and challenges 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 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.
- GenresNonfictionHistoryCanada
480 pages, Paperback
Published October 7, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 10, 2020
I always enjoy a solid, well-researched book about women's experiences in the new world. The title Imperial Plots has a double meaning: plots of land were awarded to homesteaders in Canada under the auspices of Imperial Britain, but there were multiple restrictions on women obtaining these plots. Only women who were designated sole heads of household with minor children could qualify, and even then they had to run the gamut of objections from bureaucrats who felt that women homesteading alone could not possibly fulfill the ideals of British Imperialism. Sarah Carter does a wonderful job of outlining women's struggle to have the law changed to allow them the same opportunity as the men, and as American women enjoyed -- sadly, an initiative that ultimately failed.
July 6, 2021
This is definitely a textbook and reads like one *except* for the bits and bobs of stories of pioneer women who fought to be landowners. Left me wanting more of those yet thankful for the contextual history behind it all.
Also, ridiculous how relevant this fight still is today.
Also, ridiculous how relevant this fight still is today.
July 20, 2021
History as it must be written.
History as it must be taught.
History as it must be taught.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews