Protection of body and soul in colonial Victoria came in many forms. At the most fundamental level it meant an entitlement, usually by birth or marriage, to an income that sustained you and your children; to a moral status as a woman of virtue that made sexual assault or abuse an egregious version of a crime; to the presence in your household of a capable male to embody that protection. The law provided some protection, but in fact remarkably little against assault, battery and rape if those offences were perpetrated by your husband and did not protect your rights of access to your children after divorce or access to your own wealth after marriage. A woman without a reliable, effective and respectable male protector as breadwinner—a father, a husband or a blood relative—would die younger; lose more of her children; have smaller babies at birth; suffer more infertility; risk or suffer destitution; be afflicted by addiction; commit suicide or be murdered than women who enjoyed respectable male protection. There was a hierarchy of entitlement to safety, with convicted women on the second bottom rung along with non-British women such as Chinese, while at the bottom, utterly vulnerable were Aboriginal women and girls. These were the penalties of gender rather than the wages of sin.

We are honoured that Professor Janet McCalman has accepted our invitation to deliver the third RHSV Women’s History Month Lecture in 2022.

As at most RHSV events, drinks will be served from 5:30pm and the lecture will run from 6pm to 7pm including Q&A. The Zoom lecture will commence at 6pm.

The RHSV offers ticket buyers to this event a $10 discount on buying Janet McCalman’s Vandemonians or Struggletown both of which can be found in our bookshop. A voucher code will be sent to you on booking and you apply this voucher code when checking out of the bookshop on line.

Dr Judith Smart will chair this lecture.

This is a Women’s History Month Lecture