Ebook: Imperial plots: women, land, and the spadework of British colonialism on the Canadian Prairies

"Sarah Carter's "Imperial Plots: Women, Land, and the Spadework of British Colonialism on the Canadian Prairies" examines the goals, aspirations, and challenges met by women who sought land of their own. Supporters of British women homesteaders argued they would contribute to the "spade-work" of the Empire through their imperial plots, replacing foreign settlers and relieving Britain of its surplus women. Yet far into the twentieth century there was persistent opposition to the idea that women could or should farm: British women were to be exemplars of an idealized white femininity, not toiling in the fields. In Canada, heated debates about women farmers touched on issues of ethnicity, race, gender, class, and nation. Despite legal and cultural obstacles and discrimination, British women did acquire land as homesteaders, farmers, ranchers, and speculators on the Canadian prairies. They participated in the project of dispossessing Indigenous people. Their complicity was, however, ambiguous and restricted because they were excluded from the power and privileges of their male counterparts. Imperial Plots depicts the female farmers and ranchers of the prairies, from the Indigenous women agriculturalists of the Plains, to the land army women of the First World War."--;Narrowing opportunities for women : from the indigenous farmers of the Great Plains to the exclusions of the homestead regime -- "Land owners and enterprising settlers in the colonies" : British women farmers for Canada -- Widows and other immigrant women homesteaders : struggles and strategies -- Women who bought land : the "bachelor girl" settler, "Jack" May, and other celebrity farmers and ranchers -- Answering the call of empire : Georgina Binnie-Clark, farmer, author, lecturer -- "Daughters of British blood" or "hordes of men of alien race"? : the homesteads-for-British-women campaign -- The persistence of a "curiously strong prejudice" : from the First World War to the Great Depression.