ABSTRACT
In her preface to Woman’s Mission (1893), a collection of Congress Papers by women philanthropists, Baroness Burdett-Coutts charts the phases which characterize female maturation, from the unfolding of infancy into childhood, through the blossoming of the child into the girl, to the transition into ‘responsible womanhood’ (xii). Clearly, these stages are overlapping, the implications and smooth passage from one to the other intertwined. Having directed a searchlight onto the figures of the child and emerging adult, we can now, in line with the variable focus of Hesba Stretton’s narratives, profitably direct our attention to the perspective of the woman, wife and mother. It is striking to note Stretton’s interaction with contemporary discourses and representations of motherhood and gender, and her engagement with perceptions of women as ‘other’ – not only in relation to the male sex, but also within the ranks of womanhood. Once more, issues of class, poverty and morality intersect with questions of gender and sexuality; again, relations of power, within and across classes, emerge as significant.
