Macdonald’s women

Press, 24 May 1985, Page 18

Macdonald’s women

About 1952, George Macdonald started to assemble information for brief biographies of early Canterbury settlers who came out under the Canterbury Association Scheme, 1850-52, but soon decided to take his project further. After 12 years of research, he presented to Canterbury Museum his work — a dictionary of more than 12,000 biographies of Canterbury people who lived in the nineteenth century. He drew on many sources for his information: Canterbury newspapers, manuscripts and archives, birth, death and marriage registers, shipping records, published works about Canterbury, and personal interviews with families.

But, of the 12,000 biographies, only 66 women are listed by name. Of these, 26 have only birth, death, or marriage date listed. The remaining 40 have some sort of biographical information, but the details are scant in comparison to that of the men. If an unmarried woman emigrated, she had a small range of occupations to choose from to support herself. Often, occupations were only held until a woman married, and then she was dependent upon her husband. Of the 40 women with some biographical information, 14 were schoolteachers and six matrons of hospitals.

The rest of the women listed do not have considerable numbers in any other occupation. To support themselves (and often a family) women were hotel-keepers,

farmers, boarding-house keepers, drapers, milliners, servants, actresses, and one authoress. Two women were well known as “characters” and three women were sisters of well-known men.

What is interesting about George Macdonald’s Biographical Dictionary is the women he did not list by name. Women like Jane Deans come under their husband’s name, as does Emily Foster, who was the Headmistress of Christchurch Girls’ High School in 1894 and brought up a family at the same time. Helen Gibb, who kept a well-known accommodation house on the road to Cheviot and farmed land to support herself and her children, is also listed under her husband’s name — a man who lived only four years in New Zealand.

Not only does the Macdonald list include women worthy of their own listing under their husband’s name, it does not include important women: Dolce Cabot, who edited the women’s page of the “Canterbury Times” for many years, and Maria Pope, who started the chain of Mrs Pope stores. Neither is there much information about women who were wives and mothers first and foremost, or about lower-class women. Compared to the men’s biographical information, facts about women are sparse, and often rate only a mention at the conclusion of the man’s biography. This scarcity of information about women reflects the sources used by Mr Macdonald. When the

books and papers he read were written, women were not considered as important, and their contribution to society was undervalued in a male-orientated society. In the “Cyclopedia of New Zealand” (published in 1903), for example, sons’ names are listed, but daughters and wives are rarely named. It reflects nineteenth century men’s attitudes towards women, not as individuals in their own right, but as possessions. - Newspapers reported mainly men’s activities, which were public and easily accessible. Women were generally confined to the home where their valuable contribution to the community often went unnoticed and unreported.

The traditional approach had been to stress the role of men in Canterbury (and New Zealand) history. In compiling his biographies, Mr Macdonald followed this tradition. Accordingly, notable women are listed under their husband’s name. Most of the women listed in their own right tend to be widows or unmarried.

The Macdonald Biographical Dictionary, however, is still a valuable source of information for the historical researcher or genealogist; and, when researching women, provides a starting point. But in all but the 66 cases, you have to know the husband's or father’s name first before you can find out about the woman.

By

JO-ANNE SMITH