Thesis (M.A.)--University of Adelaide, 1986. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 311-328).

Thesis (M. Sc.)--University of Western Sydney, Hawkesbury, 1994.

Understanding the lives of Italian women who migrated to Canada and Australia in the post-war period is the goal of this thesis. Although governments assigned women secondary roles as dependants and 'followers' in the migration process, I argue that Italian women were central, not marginal, to the migration and settlement experiences of Italian immigrants. By placing Italian women front and centre of this study, I contribute to a small but growing body of work that challenges the male-centred perspective of most literature on Italian-Canadian and Italian-Australian migration and ethnicity. / This thesis is structured within a feminist framework and uses interdisciplinary methods to gather and interpret quantitative and qualitative information about the lives of Italian immigrant women in post-war Canada and Australia. Using government and church archives, personal interviews, ethnic newspapers, legal documents, marriage registers and participant observer fieldwork, I explore three major themes. / Firstly, I examine Italian immigrant women's understanding of power relations within their homes and workplaces. Rather than cast women as either passive victims or all-conquering heroines, I present the complexity of the sources of power and weakness in immigrant women's lives. I argue that Italian immigrant women had to cope with exploitation and disadvantage because of their class, gender and ethnic status. However, they responded to these challenges with resistance and resilience, and were able to affect change and wield power within certain constraints. / Secondly, I compare the experiences of migration and settlement for Italian immigrant women in Canada and Australia and show how women's experiences were united by common gender concerns. I found overwhelming similarities between the family lives and work experiences of Italian-Canadian and Italian-Australian immigrant women, and in the government policies and programs that attempted to direct their migration and settlement in the post-war period. / Finally, I examine how Italian immigrant women helped to construct what it means to be 'Italian' in post-war Canada and Australia. I show how gender roles assigned to, and chosen by, Italian-Canadian and Italian-Australian women, served as boundary markers for ethnic difference. Perceived differences in attitudes towards waged work, mothering, family responsibilities and sexuality were used by Italian immigrant women to distinguish themselves as members of an ethnic collective.

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Since C J Dennis wrote The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke in 1915 the Little Lonsdale Street precinct has been a symbol of rough, immoral inner Melbourne working-class community life. Scholars and journalists have perpetuated this negative image, and the major archaeological survey conducted by Justin McCarthy in 1989 confirmed the impression of a "lowlife slum". The only industry of substance that was acknowledged by these writers was prostitution. The Museum of Victoria has erected an exhibition, and prepared a web-site, about Little Lon based on McCarthy’s report. In recent years Alan Mayne, Tim Murray and Susan Lawrence have published research questioning the slum image and have argued instead that the precinct was, essentially, a residential neighbourhood. My hypothesis is that Little Lon was much more than a poor, working-class area. Over a long period it contained a significant enclave of successful family firms engaged in manufacture and other diverse activities. / My research has involved a macro-survey of all the industries in the precinct from 1860-1950 and micro-surveys of seven individual firms. Careful note has been taken of the manner in which Nonconformist, Lebanese and Chinese entrepreneurs clustered separately, but within the same small precinct. The influence within Little Lon of Chinese cabinetmakers between about 1905 and 1925, both industrially and residentially, was strong indeed. Preceding the Chinese was a cluster of Lebanese traders (some later becoming clothing manufacturers) and, throughout the century the Nonconformist industrialists consolidated their respective positions. Research questions concerning their motivation and effectiveness have been asked of each entrepreneur. The impact of religion has been noted. My research has produced a set of commercial histories of relatively long-term small enterprises, located within a defined city area. The development of each firm has been monitored by comparison with its respective industry as a whole.

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