ABSTRACT
This chapter concerns mainly with the working out of the tensions, but can draw on a valuable collection of letters from FMCES emigrants to illustrate the impact of emigration on those women helped by the society. By the 1880s, with a new generation of female emigration societies, something of the sort actually occurred, but the emigration movement launched in 1860 could claim only modest success, at least in numerical terms. The feminist society for promoting the employment of women, founded in 1859, recognised that teaching was becoming a more precarious occupation for untrained ladies. Despite its unmistakeable tone of approval, the press debate soon revealed that female emigration was unlikely to proceed without encountering practical difficulties and public controversy. Feminism had failed to capitalise on the potential of female emigration, it remained to be seen whether philanthropy could exploit it more fully in the interests of the most disadvantaged groups of middle-class women.
