Home, Nature, and the Feminine Ideal

A major work on the biopolitical shaping of femininity in the Anglophone world in the 19th Century – and indeed into the 21st Century. Elaine Stratford shows how women were conditioned to be dutiful wives and daughters whose domestic roles were to promote morality, hygiene and a healthy, disciplined population. This volume joins the scholarly pantheon, led by Dolores Hayden and Christine Boyer, who centre women's bodies in geography and planning research. -- Jean Hillier, Emeritus Professor of Sustainability and Urban Planning, RMIT University
‘‘Cleanliness is next to godliness’; ‘the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world’. In nineteenth century Anglophone nations, women’s lives were understood in terms of such mantras. Their faces, fashions and domestic environments were part of their responsibility for the morality and health of their families, homes, and even the perceived decline of the population.  Stratford’s lively, wide-ranging and yet penetrating analysis of nineteenth century texts shows how women’s bodies were governed in the interests of improvement. -- Ruth Fincher, Redmond Barry Distinguished Professor Emeritus, School of Geography, University of Melbourne
In Home, Nature, and the Feminine Ideal Elaine Stratford presents a lucid and eloquently written account of the ways in which bodies shape, and are shaped by, geographies of the interior and empire. This powerful book beautifully illustrates the connections between feminine embodiment, home, and nature in the Anglophone world during the long nineteenth century. With compelling attention to periodical press as well as other formal and populist texts (a collaboration with the archive), Stratford charts the mechanisms of life and place. She explores national and imperial ambitions as they are entangled and folded through bodies, home, nature, communities, settlements, regions, colonies and territories. The book reveals deep insights into intricate biopolitical assemblages of gender, race, and class. Empirical gems - beauty; health; fashion; moral and social progress; scientific motherhood, domestic economy, public health and bad smells – cause the reader to pause, reflect and rethink notions of progress and reform. This stunning book will be an invaluable resource across the social sciences and humanities. -- Lynda Johnston, Professor of Geography, University of Waikato