The ideal “Bush-Woman“ in Henry Lawson‘s
The Drover‘s Wife
Table of Contents
1. Introduction 1
2. Australia - a Land for Men 2
3. Women in Australia 2 3.1 The “Bush-Woman“ in “The Drover‘s Wife“ 2 3.2 The role of Australian Women 2 3.3 Australian Feminism 2
4.Conclusion 2
5.Bibliography 3
6. Declaration of Authenticity
1. Introduction
“[...] she fought a bad bullock that besieged the house for a day“ (Lawson 6). This would probably be a challenge for a man not for a woman. But in Henry Lawson‘s point of view this and fighting snakes and diseases are things women in the Australian bush are capable of doing as presented in The Drover‘s Wife. Henry Lawson (1867-1922) is the finest author and poet in Australia's colonial period and had a big focus on the Australian bush and life. He is famous for his works such as The Drover‘s Wife which got first published 1892 in The Bulletin - an Australian magazine of great importance. In his short story The Drover‘s Wife Lawson presents a mother with her children in a dangerous living situation in the Australian bush, “Lawson‘s story created the archetype of the pioneer bush-woman, a heroic mother left on her own by the drover husband, resigned to her fate, battling against the elements and winning“ (Carrera-Suarez, 140). Lawson, who lived in the Australian-Bush himself is able to judge which attributes are important to survive in it and so created the image of the drover‘s wife. His view of women in the colonial period seems to be positive furthermore, his mother Louisa Lawson herself a writer and poet was a famous feminist which could have had a great influence on him. By combining the attitude towards life of his feminist mother and the characteristics of a strong man/dad, he created the role of the mother in The Drover‘s Wife. “The absence of the shearer(/drover) and the desolate landscape are the key to the woman's behavior“ (Carrera-Suarez, 140). For him the ideal woman living in the bush should be like her because she represents a heroic survivor. In the following my focus will be on topic of the mother in Henry Lawson‘s short story, which represents Lawson‘s idealization of an Australian-Bush-Woman. The women of the Australian bush should be indicated as equal to men and qualified to assume the challenges of men. This is why I will start with a look on Australia as country, which is known as „land for men“ (Schaffer 14) because of its challenges and adventures. After that I will put my focus on the Australian “Bush-Woman“ and compare it to the traditional role of Australian women who live in the cities. Moreover, I will face the Australian feminism movement and how women fought for equal living conditions and the impact of feminism literature. Finally, I will finish the term paper with the conclusion with my opinion on Henry Lawson‘s presentation of the Australian “Bush-Woman“.
1
2. Australia - a land for Men
This part of the paper is about the land Australia, which often gets connected with adventure and danger. These attributes describe mostly men and are barely connected with women.
3. Women in Australia
3.1 The “Bush-Woman“ in “The Drover‘s Wife“
This chapter is about the drover‘s wife who had to protect herself and her family to survive in the Australian bush and take over the men‘s challenges.
3.2 The role of Australian woman
In this part of the paper I will refer to the typical Australian women in the cities. Housekeeping and raising the children, these were the main task of women, who had not the same rights and opportunities as men.
3.3 Australian Feminism
This part of the term paper is about the Feminism movement in Australian history and how women wanted to change society and laws for equality. I will refer to feminism authors, such as Louisa Lawson, demonstrations and protest fighting for equal rights.
4. Conclusion
In the conclusion I will get to the point how women of the Australian bush were able to adopt men‘s tasks to survive and how Lawson transferred in my opinion women‘s changed the illustration during the colonial period.
2
5. Bibliography
Baynton, Barbara. Bush Studies. London: Duckworth, 1902. Print.
Bromhead, Helen. "The Bush in Australian English." Australian Journal of Linguistics 31.4 (2011): 445-71. Web.
Carrera-Suarez, Isabel. A Gendered Bush: Mansfield and Australian Drover‘s Wives. Australian Literary Studies, 1991, Vol.15(2), pp.140-48. Print.
Darian-Smith, Kate et al. Text, Theory, Space: Land, literature and history in South Africa and Australia. London: Routledge, 1996. Print.
Davison, Graeme Hirst,John Bradley Macintyre, Stuart. The Oxford Companion to Australian History., 2001. Web.
Gelder, Ken and Jacobs, Margaret. Uncanny Australia: Sacredness and Identity in a Postcolonial Nation. Victoria: Melbourne University Press, 1998. Print.
Reiger, K. ""Sort of Part of the Women's Movement. but Different": Mothers' Organisations and Australian Feminism." Women's studies international forum 22.6 (1999): 585-95. Web.
Schaffer, Kay. Women and the Bush: Forces of Desire in the Australian Cultural Tradition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988. Print.
Seibert, Anita and Roslaniec, Dorota. “Women, Power and the Public Sphere.” Women & Power. N.p., 1998. Web. 12 Feb. 2014.
Wells, Kathryn. “The Australian Bush”. Australian Story. Australian government, 1 March 2011. Web. 8 Feb. 2014.
