Nineteenth-Century British Female Emigration Societies

Overview & Synopsis

Empire migration was a gendered concept for the British Victorian female emigration societies whose role was to organize essentially unmarried women’s emigration to the British colonies. After the 1851 Census officially revealed the extent of Britain’s female overpopulation, some philanthropic societies focused on the redistribution of the so-called “surplus” women by relocating them to the colonies, along with British gender norms and economic prospects. Many newspaper editorials, parliamentarians, and key commentators of the day depicted these so-called “surplus” women as burdens because they were unmarried, childless, jobless, and so considered unproductive. At the intersection between the upper working class and the middle classes, “surplus” women were gentlewomen who embodied British traditions and norms. They were expected to show self-restraint, serve men, and be submissive and feminine according to Victorian standards. They were educated in socially acceptable,...