Western Women and Imperialism: Complicity and Resistance

Western Women and Imperialism looks into interactions and attitudes between western and non-western women, mainly in the 19th and early 20th centuries. It is an important contribution to the field of women's studies and (primarily British) empire studies, in that several of the contributions explore problems of cross-cultural interaction that have been so far overlooked. This volume examines what Western women did, thought, and felt in and about the colonies in Africa and India. This volume looks at the interaction between race, class, and gender. The contributors look at Western women's connivance in, as well as their opposition/resistance to, the cultural values prevailing during an age of empire. The authors place side-by-side feminists and social reformers of varying persuasions with pro-imperialist women of different levels, in so doing offering insights into the workings of race and class ideologies within the complex but often seen as simplistic world of imperialism. The essays show the varied voices, assumptions, and understandings of empire represented by activist women often negotiated the power of race, class, gender to achieve their own personal agendas within the colonial milieu.