Convict Lives.

The image of convict women depicted in Australian history has changed significantly over time.  Lt Ralph Clark from the First Fleet was quick to label women who came to Australia as convicts as “damned whores”, despite him making this judgement in regards to 192 women who were on board. In truth, it has been estimated by some historians that  of all women who were transported to Australia during this period in history, only perhaps one-fifth had been engaged in full or part-time prostitution prior to arrival, and of these, it can be hypothesised that a percentage did so to support their families who were living in dire poverty.

However, Lt Clark was correct in labelling these women as “damned”, for as Anne Summers argues, they “had little chance of having their status redefined… [and] the stereotype came to be applied to many other women in the colony who had not been transported”. This typecast was considered to be true, leading to many men, especially those in positions of power, to take advantage of this for their own gains. One settler wrote that “the youngest and handsomest of the women were selected and sent on board, by order of the master, the king’s ships… for the vilest purposes”. Supplementarily to this, many women were subjected to inhumane activities and humiliation at the hands of authority, including a punishment which forced women to wear iron collars which gave them “the appearance of ‘horned cattle’”.

Historian Deborah Oxley’s revisionist theory changes the earlier portrayal of convict women, instead focussing upon the extent to which they can be labelled as true ‘criminals’. She states that while “convict women were criminals, they were hardly members of professional gangs of wrongdoers… [they were] small-time crooks opportunistically engaging in property crimes… few engaged in violence for the sake of it”. However, despite this, she is not particularly empathetic to their treatment in the new settlement to the extent that Summers is, nor does she believe that they were totally wronged, forced to steal to support their starving families as some historians have theorised. Instead, she very logically states that “the colonies needed labour and were willing to pay for it through assisted passages… most of all, they needed women”, perhaps suggesting that some women were opportunistic, pointing to posters which “boldly declared the selection criteria of these assisted migrants”. Oxley’s labelling of convict women as ‘assisted migrants’ clearly juxtaposes the opinion given by Summers, highlighting the historiographical debate over the true nature of these new female settlers of Australia.

This was a frequently used visual for convict women, showing them as loose, immoral and criminal, deserving to be in a new society which was likened to "hell on earth". This image shows one woman as an alcoholic, the other as a whore which Lt Clark was quick to agree with; an opinion which lasted in popularity as this well known image did. (Source: http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-an5577509-v)