ABSTRACT
In the post-Napoleonic atmosphere of Great Britain and her colonies, questions of national identity for women and children focused on civic good and national responsibility, establishing goals that set them apart and above citizens of lesser nations. Also, the emphasis on the sensible and practical, the criticism of an education for women that focuses on refinements rather than the "utilities", was very much within the philosophy of Tait's Edinburgh Magazine. In the 1830s, the Montreal Museum's editors took a similar view of female roles and of education for women. The traditional ideas of women's roles expressed in the colonial sectarian periodicals such as the Christian Mirror were also present in the religious press of the United Kingdom. The maternal identity role promulgated by all periodicals emphasized the role of mothers in the education of their children. The concern for future roles for colonial women is often couched in terms of their children's education.
