The Perfect Homemaker : Gendered Representations in the Northern Messenger

Type of resource
Author/collaborator
Title
The Perfect Homemaker : Gendered Representations in the Northern Messenger
Abstract
The author examines the "Northern Messenger," a newspaper circulating in Montreal in the late nineteenth century, to see how gender roles were represented in the newspaper's segment titled "The Household." The segment was aimed at middle class Anglophone women in the city, and ran in the newspaper between 1880 and 1896. Specifically, the author examines what made a good homemaker in1880s and 1890s Montreal (according to the Northern Messenger), and what does this tell us about women in Montreal during this period? The Northern Messenger was founded by John Dougall (1808-1886), editor of the evangelical Protestant and temperance newspaper, the "Montreal Witness," but was under the editorship of Dougall's son, John Jr., during the years The Household segment ran in the paper. The author concludes that her analysis of the newspaper challenges the popularized ideal that women were perfectly content as homemakers. She maintains that the The Household segment demonstrates that Montreal Anglophone society felt that middle class homemakers needed persuasion to remain in the home in the desired domestic role. Thus the segment aimed to make women feel empowered and satisfied with their role in order to persuade them to remain as homemakers.
Publication
Integritas : Nipissing University Student Journal of History
Volume
Vol. 2
Pages
4-22
Date
December 2019
Language
en
URL
Citation
Webb, Tatianna. “The Perfect Homemaker : Gendered Representations in the Northern Messenger.” Integritas : Nipissing University Student Journal of History Vol. 2 (December 2019): 4–22. https://www.nipissingu.ca/sites/default/files/2020-06/Integritas_Vol_2.pdf#page=4.
Find in a library
Permalink