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Resilience And Fortitude: The Lives Of Impoverished Women In Fremantle, Western Australia, 1890-1914, Linda Mcgowan

Theses

Many impoverished women struggled to raise their children without support in Fremantle, Western Australia, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. This thesis investigates how these women managed to provide for their children, and keep their families together, at a time when society expected women to be supported by men. The appalling living conditions in the slum areas of Fremantle, which often led to serious health issues that further impacted on women’s struggle for survival, are explored as well as how the denial of legal rights, and harsh community attitudes towards these women, exacerbated already difficult situations. Options such …