The Century London Angela Woollacott Summary

The Colonial Flaneuse: Australian Women Negotiating Turn-of –the –Century London by Angela Woollacott, comprises historical abstracts taken from journals, dairies, and magazine articles. These artifacts help identify as well as support the physical and social mobility of gendered ideologies of London’s turn toward modernism in the 20th century. This article has four specific arguments pertaining to the colonial subjects of Australian women coming to London, to achieve living the ultimate reality. Firstly being how London and modernity fostered white colonial women’s desires for fulfilling lives and careers. This then ties to encroachment in the public space, which battled social norms. Secondly emphasizing the fears and fantasies of the Australian women who were exploring a world of freedom with confidence. Thirdly was the introduction of the term flaneuse and how that correlated with the desire to be engaged spectators of their urban dwelling. Lastly was the exploration of modernity, colonialism as well as shifts in spatial and cultural gender boundaries (Woollacott,766). Australian women looked at London in the same lens individuals look to American as the “ American

London was a place which breathed opportunity weather it be education, career, expression of talents or even adventure (Woollacott,768). It represented a period of transformation. Two luring positions became available in Britain for women in social work and state administration, offering women to hold a professional title and gain work experience. Together women were changing the face of metropolitan space, and pursuing multiple fields became the common characteristic of women. Colonial women’s encroachment was giving a new identity to public and private spaces, it challenged boundaries, socially constructed gender ideologies and cumulatively defined