Empire's daughters

Abstract

While girls are often consigned to the shadows in studies of colonialism, Empire’s daughters uncovers the ways in which girls and ideas of girlhood were central to the construction of colonial identities and societies and ideas of whiteness. Girls were heralded as empire builders and, especially during times of imperial uncertainty, were crucial to the creation and maintenance of class, gender, and racial hierarchies. Yet girls’ involvement in the empire was anything but straightforward. They not only supported – directly and indirectly – racialised systems of colonial power but also resisted them. To explore these complexities of girls’ participation in the empire, Empire’s daughters examines the Girls’ Friendly Society, an organisation that emerged in late Victorian Britain and developed into a global society with branches throughout the empire. The book charts the society’s origins and growth and its later decline in the interwar era. It also explores how, through its multifaceted imperial education and emigration programmes, the society constructed ideas of girlhood, race, and empire that then circulated globally. The book employs a multi-sited framework that examines girlhood in different areas of the empire, including Britain, India, South Africa, and Australia, and utilises a range of sources, including correspondences, scrapbooks, photographs, and newsletters, to provide new insights into girls’ experiences of and engagement with colonialism. Through this study of the Girls’ Friendly Society, Girlhood and whiteness explores the micropolitics of colonialism and whiteness and argues that understandings of colonialism remain incomplete without considerations of girls and girlhood.