Description
Book SynopsisAn engaging history of the Ladies Benevolent Society and Hamilton Orphan Asylum and a broad consideration of the ability of women’s charitable work to bridge the nineteenth-century boundaries of public and private spheres.
Trade ReviewA very readable, persuasive, and important contribution to the literature on gender and social policy in nineteenth-century Canada written in a way that engagingly connects history with theory. -- James E. Struthers, professor in the Canadian Studies Department at Trent University
...Nielson’s well-crafted study provides a unique lens through which to examine gender, the public-private spheres, and politics in nineteenth-century Canada. -- Claire L. Halstead, University of Western Ontario * British Journal of Canadian Studies, Vol. 29 No. 1, Spring 2016 *
Table of ContentsIntroduction: Gender and the Public Sphere
1 Hamilton, Upper Canada, to 1846
2 A “sufficiently extensive and efficient instrumentality”
3 A Mixed Social Economy
4 The City and the Ladies
5 Public Acts and Private Lives
6 Institutionalization, Adoption, and Apprenticeship
7 Continuity and Change, 1870-93
Conclusion: A Career in Christian Charity
Notes
Bibliography
Index
