Routledge Freedom Bound 1

Product Description Over generations, Australian women have envisaged a world of freedom. This new collection of documents - letters, diary extracts, poems, public speeches - charts the visions that inspired women and the obstacles that confronted them.Dealing with a period from colonisation to early Federation in 1901, Freedom Bound I shows how intertwined were women's public and personal lives, and how bound by custom, ties, affection and duties. The different meanings of freedom have been shaped by the nature of women's oppression, their quests given focus by their different points of departure. Convict women protested - often violently - at the indignities they endured; Aboriginal women protested at the cruelty of the frontier and the paternalism of the mission; and white middle-class women demanded the freedom to participate in the public world.Together with its companion volume, Freedom Bound II, which deals with the twentieth century, this volume documents the dreams that inspired women, the pleasures and pain that informed their politics and the desires that enthralled them, even as they bade them to be free. It is an essential resource for students and teachers of Australian women's history. From the Back Cover Over generations, Australian women have envisaged a world of freedom. This new collection of documents - letters, songs, poetry, diary extracts - charts the visions that inspired women and the obstacles that confronted them. Exploring twentieth-century Australia, Freedom Bound II shows how intertwined were women's public and personal lives, and how bound by custom, ties, affections and duties. The different meanings of freedom have been shaped by the nature of women's oppression, their quests given focus by their different points of departure. Aboriginal women sought self-determination and the right to keep their children; migrant women sought to affirm culture and family ties, and escape discrimination and poverty. Overburdened mothers wanted relief from continual childbearing and a measure of self-fulfillment. Numerous women have campaigned for freedom from domestic tyranny and male violence. Together with its companion volume, Freedom Bound I, which deals with the period of colonisation, this volume documents the dreams that inspired women, the pleasures and pain that informed their politics and the desires that enthralled them, even as they bade them to be free. It is an essential resource for students and teachers of Australian women's history. About the Author Patricia Grimshaw is Professor of History at the University of Melbourne; Susan Janson is assistant editor of Australian Historical Studies, and Marian Quartly is Dean of Arts at Monash University, Melbourne. Grimshaw and Quartly are co-authors (with Marilyn Lake and Ann McGrath) of Creating a Nation (1994), and Janson is co-editor (with Stuart Macintyre) of Through White Eyes (1990).