Gendering the Settler State: White Women, Race, Liberalism and Empire in Rhodesia, 1950-1980

195 Pages·2015·1.652 MB·English

by  Kate Law

Gendering the Settler State
White women cut an ambivalent fi gure in the transnational history of the
British Empire. They tend to be remembered as malicious harridans per-
sonifying the worst excesses of colonialism, as vacuous fusspots, whose lives
were punctuated by a series of frivolous pastimes, or as casualties of patriar-
chy, constrained by male actions and gendered ideologies. This book, which
places itself amongst other “new imperial histories”, argues that the reality
of the situation is, of course, much more intricate and complex. Focusing
on post-war colonial Rhodesia, Gendering the Settler State provides a fi ne-
grained analysis of the role(s) of white women in the colonial enterprise,
arguing that they held ambiguous and inconsistent views on a variety of
issues, including liberalism, gender, race and colonialism.
Kate Law is a women’s, gender and empire historian who specialises in
twentieth-century sub-Saharan African history. She is currently a lecturer in
Gender Studies in the Centre for Africa Studies at the University of the Free
State, South Africa.
Routledge Research in Gender and History
1 The Women’s Movement and 7 The Educated Woman
Women’s Employment in Minds, Bodies, and Women’s
Nineteenth Century Britain Higher Education in Britain,
Ellen Jordan Germany, and Spain, 1865–1914
Katharina Rowold
2 Gender, Sexuality and Colonial
8 Political Women
Modernities
The Women’s Movement, Political
Edited by Antoinette Burton
Institutions, the Battle for Women’s
Suffrage and the ERA
3 Women’s Suffrage in the British
Alana S. Jeydel
Empire
Citizenship, Nation and Race 9 Women, Education, and Agency,
Edited by Ian Christopher 1600–2000
Fletcher, Laura E. Nym Mayhall Edited by Jean Spence, Sarah Jane
and Philippa Levine Aiston, and Maureen M. Meikle
4 Women, Educational Policy- 10 Gender, Migration and the
Making and Administration Public Sphere, 1850–2005
in England Edited by Marlou Schrover and
Authoritative Women Since 1800 Eileen Janes Yeo
Edited by Joyce Goodman and
Sylvia Harrop 11 Across the Religious Divide:
Women, Property, and Law
in the Wider Mediterranean (ca.
5 Women, Gender and Labour
1300–1800)
Migration
Jutta Gisela Sperling and Shona
Historical and Global Perspectives
Kelly Wray
Edited by Pamela Sharpe
12 Gender, Power, and Military
6 Women, Accounting, and Occupations
Narrative Asia Pacifi c and the Middle East
Keeping Books in Eighteenth- since 1945
Century England Edited by Christine de Matos and
Rebecca Elisabeth Connor Rowena Ward
13 The Schooling of Girls in Britain 19 Gender in Urban Europe
and Ireland, 1800–1900 Sites of Political Activity and
Jane McDermid Citizenship, 1750–1900
Edited by Krista Cowman, Nina
14 Gender in Late Medieval and Javette Koefoed and Åsa Karlsson
Early Modern Europe Sjögren
Edited by Marianna G. Muravyeva
and Raisa Maria Toivo 20 Women and the Reinvention
of the Political
15 The Political Worlds of Women Feminism in Italy, 1968–1983
Gender and Politics in Nineteenth Maud Anne Bracke
Century Britain
Sarah Richardson 21 Women in Higher Education,
1850–1970
16 Men After War International Perspectives
Edited by Stephen McVeigh and Edited by E. Lisa Panayotidis and
Nicola Cooper Paul Stortz
17 Female Agency in the Urban 22 Gendering the Settler State
Economy White Women, Race, Liberalism
Gender in European Towns, 1640– and Empire in Rhodesia,
1830 1950–1980
Edited by Deborah Simonton and Kate Law
Anne Montenach
18 Women and the Media
Feminism and Femininity in
Britain, 1900 to the Present
Edited by Maggie Andrews and
Sallie McNamara
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Gendering the Settler State
White Women, Race, Liberalism and
Empire in Rhodesia, 1950–1980
Kate Law
First published 2016
by Routledge
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and by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2016 Taylor & Francis
The right of Kate Law to be identified as author of this work has been
asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs
and Patents Act 1988.
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without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
CIP data has been applied for.
ISBN: 978-1-138-91609-8 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-68984-5 (ebk)
Typeset in Sabon
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Contents
List of Abbreviations ix
Map of Zimbabwe x
Foreword by Philippa Levine xi
Acknowledgements xv
Permissions Acknowledgements xvii
Introduction: Writing White Women, c. 1950–1980 1
1 Making Settlers Out of Pioneers: White Women and the
Development of Rhodesia, 1890–1940 23
2 The Politics of Pots and Pans: Miriam Staunton, Gender Norms
and the Federation of African Women’s Clubs, 1950–1970 49
3 “Think[ing] Black”: Eileen Haddon, Multiracialism and
Majority Rule, 1953–1965 73
4 Struggles within the Struggle: Diana Mitchell, Opposition
Politics, Liberalism and Women’s Liberation, 1965–1979 95
5 “Imperialists Stuck in a Time Warp”?: White Women,
Memory and the History of Rhodesia 141
Conclusion: White Women in Colonial Rhodesia 162
Index 171
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List of Abbreviations
ANC—African National Council
BSAC—British South Africa Company
BSAP—British South Africa Police
CAF—Central African Federation
CAMP—Cooperative Africana Microform Project
CAP—Central Africa Party
CAS—Capricorn Africa Society
CCFS—Cold Comfort Farm Society
CG—Centre Group
CP—Centre Party
FAWC—Federation of African Women’s Clubs
IASR—Interracial Association of Southern Rhodesia
NP—National Party (South Africa)
NFBPWR—National Federation of Business and Professional Women of
Rhodesia
NUF—National Unifying Force
RCA—Rhodesian Constitutional Association
RF—Rhodesian Front
RGA—Responsible Government Association
RNP—Rhodesia National Party
RP—Rhodesia Party
RW—Rhodesians Worldwide
SRANC—Southern Rhodesia African National Congress
SRLAWF—Southern Rhodesia Legal Aid and Welfare Fund
UANC—United African National Council
UDI—Unilateral Declaration of Independence
UFP—United Federal Party
UP—United Party
URP—United Rhodesia Party
WFP—Women for Peace
WFR—Women for Rhodesia
ZANU—Zimbabwe African National Union
ZANU-PF—Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front
ZAPU—Zimbabwe African People’s Union
ZAR—Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek (South African Republic)