The Unsung Heroines of the British Empire

Abstract

Center of Social Science Research Student Paper Award Winners (2017) The female perspective of British travelers to the British Empire has been widely ignored by historians. The study of gender migration is a relatively newer field of history that has gained some attention. For the historians who have taken a look at female migration to and female explorers in the empire’s colonies, some tend to over romanticize the experiences these women had in their travels abroad. This trend seems to take root in naming women such as Gertrude Bell and Mary Kingsley as heroines for being groundbreaking female explorers. While Mary Kingsley and Gertrude Bell are from two different time periods, they both encompass images of women who defied traditional gender roles and influenced how historians examine female travelers today. These women are outliers due to their own British privileges, socioeconomic statuses and the masculine nature of their achievements. Feminist historians give overwhelming credit to Mary Kingsley and Gertrude Bell for essentially “breaking the mold” of the influence women had in their travels to the distant lands of the British Empire. Unfortunately, claiming Bell and Kingsley as all-encompassing heroines depletes the recognition of ordinary women being nurses, teachers and missionaries in the empire. These everyday professions should be considered as heroic because all three fields are essential in the wellbeing of the people within the empire and without them the empire could never exist.