Who were the female convicts? What kinds of lives did they lead in a new society half a world away from home?
Convict Women begins with the story of Maria Lord - convict 'whore', pioneer family woman, successful entrepreneur, abandoned wife - whose life illustrates many of the central themes of convict women's history in Australia.
Convict Women looks beyond the conventional images to draw a new and often surprising picture of these women's experience. Neither passive victims, damned whores or god's police, these women and the choices they made and had made for them, tell us much about the richness and complexity of a newly born community.
Kay Daniels is the co-editor of Uphill All the Way: A documentary history of women in Australia (1980) and the editor of So Much Hard Work: Women and prostitution in Australian history (1984).
About Kay Daniels
Dr Kay Daniels, an historian, was the chairperson of the Federal Committee to Review Australian Studies. She is the co-editor of Uphill All the Way: A documentary history of women in Australia (1980) and the editor of So Much Hard Work: Women and prostitution in Australian history (1984).