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  • Female Convicts: Victims or Agents?

    Author(s)
    Piper, Alana Jayne
    Griffith University Author(s)
    Piper, Alana J.
    Year published
    2006
    Metadata
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    Abstract
    This paper addresses and examines the historiographical debate on the situation of female convicts. In particular, it asserts that convict women were not necessarily victimised by the transportation system, with prisoners able to manipulate the conditions of the colony to assert a significant degree of agency. In the factory system, female prisoners often collectively rebelled to improve their circumstances. Similarly, women in assigned service practised individual acts of rebellion, empowered by the recognition that the scarcity of labour endowed them with substantial bargaining power. Furthermore, investigation of the ...
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    This paper addresses and examines the historiographical debate on the situation of female convicts. In particular, it asserts that convict women were not necessarily victimised by the transportation system, with prisoners able to manipulate the conditions of the colony to assert a significant degree of agency. In the factory system, female prisoners often collectively rebelled to improve their circumstances. Similarly, women in assigned service practised individual acts of rebellion, empowered by the recognition that the scarcity of labour endowed them with substantial bargaining power. Furthermore, investigation of the sexual nature of their imprisonment demonstrates convict women encountered sexual expectations similar to those they would have experienced as working class women in Britain, with prisoners perhaps perceiving their sexuality as another means to develop their economic or social agency.
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    Journal Title
    Crossroads
    Volume
    1
    Issue
    1
    Publisher URI
    http://www.uq.edu.au/crossroads/archives.html#v1i1
    Subject
    Australian History (excl. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander History)
    Historical Studies
    Philosophy
    Religion and Religious Studies
    Publication URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/10072/67351
    Collection
    • Journal articles

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