Constructing and Contesting “the Girlhood of Our Empire”: Girls’ Culture, Labor, and Mobility in Britain, South Africa, and New Zealand, c. 1830-1930 A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA BY Elizabeth Ann Dillenburg IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Anna Clark, Mary Jo Maynes April 2019 © Elizabeth Ann Dillenburg 2019 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS To call this my dissertation seems like a misnomer, because in reality it is the product of so many people’s time, energy, ideas, and sacrifices. My journey to the completion of this PhD has been a long, often challenging one, and I could not have done it without the support of the people around me. I am fortunate to have had the opportunity to work with scholars whose work I so greatly admire. My advisers, Anna Clark and Mary Jo Maynes, spent countless hours reading my work, providing constructive feedback, supporting me at conferences, writing letters of recommendation, and giving me advice from my first days as a graduate student. They challenged me and saw potential in my work that I could not even see. Their ideas and insights can be found throughout this dissertation. My work is stronger because of their guidance. My committee members—Ann Waltner, Patricia Lorcin, and Andrew Elfenbein—provided me with insightful comments and comparative perspectives that enhanced my work and gave me ideas for future directions for my research. I am also grateful to Evan Roberts, who trusted me his books and guided me through New Zealand history and historiography. My time as an undergraduate and MA student at Marquette University was formative to this dissertation and my career as a historian. Monica Gallamore’s early encouragement was key in my decision to major in history and later go to grad school. Chima Korieh and Philip Naylor cultivated my interest in global history. Lezlie Knox provided some of the best advice I received as a graduate student. i Portions of this dissertation have been presented at various conferences and workshops, where I received feedback that helped me strengthen and refine my writing. The participants of the Youth as Subject, Object, Agent research collaborative; Workshop for the Comparative History of Women, Gender, and Sexuality; and Graduate Workshop in Modern History gave me advice on early iterations of various chapters and helped me think about my project in new ways. Attendants at the Social Science History Association, Society for the Childhood and Youth, and Children’s History Society conferences helped me develop my arguments. Parts of the various chapters appear in the edited collections, New Perspectives on Gender and Empire and International Migrations in the Victorian Era. I am grateful to the reviewers and editors of those collections and especially Ulrike Lindner, Dörte Lerp, and the participants of the gender and empire conference in Cologne for their insights. Research for this dissertation has been generously supported by the Hella Mears Graduate Fellowship in European Studies, the University of Minnesota Graduate School Thesis Research Travel Grant, the University of Minnesota Graduate Research Partnership Program Fellowship, and the University of Minnesota History Department. Many archivists assisted me in my research, including those at the Women’s Library, Derbyshire Record Office, the Keep in Brighton, the Modern Records Centre at the University of Warwick, the John Rylands Library, Lambeth Palace Library, Church of England Record Centre, London Metropolitan Archives, University of Liverpool Department of Special Collections and Archives, the British Library, the National Archives, and North London Collegiate School. I am especially grateful Martine King at ii Barnardo’s and Isobel Laing at Cheltenham Ladies’ College who were so welcoming and accommodating and took time out of their busy schedules to talk with me personally. I am lucky to have been surrounded by many good friends and colleagues during my time at the University of Minnesota. I will always be grateful for the support, guidance, and generosity of Emily Bruce, Kelly Condit-Shrestha, Eric Dahlman, Ruchen Gao, Hui-Han Jin, Kate Krieg, Kan Li, Ellen Manovich, Silke Antje Niklas, Leslie Nightingale, Sharon Park, Jan Volek, and Marie Wu. I feel like I won the lottery to have spent the last three years working with wonderful colleagues at the Center of Austrian Studies. Jennifer Hammer’s positivity and warmth made the office an inviting place to be. Howard P. Louthan has been an incredible friend and mentor whose advice and encouragement have been invaluable. Last but certainly not least, my greatest thanks go to my family. My nephew Ben has brought so much laughter and love into my life. He is a constant reminder of the need to stop doing “school work” all the time and appreciate the little joys in life. I will always be “regular Auntie” to him and promise that my next project will include more trains. My niece Emma arrived five days after I defended my dissertation on October 17, 2018 and has filled my life with so much happiness. I look forward to watching her grow and many adventures with her. My sister, Jessica, has been my friend and role model throughout my life and also gets the credit (or perhaps blame) for starting me on this path to being a British historian. From a young age, her love of British literature and culture was infectious, and when she took me to England for the first time, she ignited a lifelong interest in British history that led me here. My mom and dad nurtured my love of history, iii taught me the value of education, and, through their example, instilled in me the importance of hard work and perseverance. Their countless sacrifices enabled me to get a good education and pursue a PhD. Mom, Dad, and Jessica were my cheerleaders and my partners on every step of this journey, believing in me and giving me the strength, courage, and confidence to keep going when it seemed impossible. It is because of them and their unwavering love and support that I reached the finish line. iv DEDICATION For my family v ABSTRACT “Constructing and Contesting ‘the Girlhood of Our Empire’” studies girls’ complex, often paradoxical roles in the British Empire and analyzes how discussions about the education, employment, and emigration of girls both reflected and shaped broader political, economic, and social debates. Although girls are marginalized in studies of colonialism, concerted efforts to educate and emigrate girls reveal how the project of empire building depended on the mobility and labor of girls and young women. This dissertation begins by considering the ways in which youth organizations sought to transform girls into “empire builders” and girls’ roles as migrants, settlers, laborers, and creators and transmitters of colonial knowledge. Girls supported the empire, but they also challenged systems of colonial power and resisted prescribed roles in various ways, from penning criticisms of false imperial propaganda to absconding from exploitative situations. While most histories of childhood focus on one region, “Constructing and Contesting ‘the Girlhood of Our Empire’” employs a multi-sited framework that examines girlhood in different areas of the empire—concentrating specifically on Britain, New Zealand, and South Africa—to elucidate variations within broader colonial processes. As explored in the second part of the dissertation, emigration programs for British girls to New Zealand and South Africa faced innumerable obstacles, and their limited success exposed fault lines within the colonial project. The third part of the dissertation focuses debates over the employment of African and Māori girls as domestic servants in British colonial households and how these debates reveal the ways in which vi ideas of girlhood and girls’ lives were intertwined with conceptualizations of the nation, empire, and race. The nature of the colonial archive means that girls’ experiences rarely appear in the traditional sources, but their voices do emerge in letters they wrote to family and friends, articles they composed for children’s periodicals, scrapbooks they crafted, and photographs and artwork they created. Utilizing these myriad sources, “Constructing and Contesting ‘the Girlhood of Our Empire’” provides new insights into girls’ roles in the empire and more nuanced understandings of how class, race, and geography mediated girls’ experiences of and engagement with colonialism. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements i Dedication v Abstract vi List of Tables and Figures x List of Abbreviations xii Introduction Imperial Citizens, Good Servants, and Model Mothers of New Empires: Constructing, Performing, and Contesting Girlhood in the British Empire 1 Chapter One “The Foundation of British Home Life”: Domestic and Imperial Crises and the Evolution of Emigration Programs for Girls to South Africa and New Zealand, c. 1830-1900 41 Chapter Two “The Opportunity for Empire Building”: The Girls’ Friendly Society, Migration, and the Fashioning of a Colonial Girlhood 84 Chapter Three “To Be a Girl Here is Much More Difficult”: Girls’ Cultural and Emotional Labor and the (De)Construction of Girlhood 122 Chapter Four “Trouble with the Girl”: Race, Class, and Competing Imperial Projects in South Africa and New Zealand 161 Chapter Five “Where the Home Life is White”: Domestic Servant Debates in South Africa, c. 1912-1913 215 Chapter Six “The Girlhood of Māori Girls”: Domestic Servant Debates in New Zealand, c. 1907-1908 248