Feminine identity in New Zealand : the Girl Peace Scout movement 1908-1925

Type of content
Theses / Dissertations
Publisher's DOI/URI
Thesis discipline
History
Degree name
Master of Arts
Publisher
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Language
English
Date
2000
Authors
McCurdy, Diana
Abstract

This is a study of feminine identity in early twentieth-century New Zealand through the life and work of Lieutenant-Colonel David Cossgrove (1852 - 1920). In 1908, Cossgrove established Peace Scouting, New Zealand's first adult-sponsored youth movement for girls. Peace Scouting was a character-training scheme that Cossgrove adapted directly from Robert Baden-Powell's Boy Scout movement. He developed and organised it independently from Girl Guiding, which was Britain's official "feminised" adaptation of Scouting. For most of the movement's 17 years, Cossgrove acted as Peace Scouting's figurehead, and was the central source of its unique identity. Unlike the Guide movement, which constructed femininity within the broad western ideals of population ideology, the Peace Scout movement appealed to a distinctly New Zealand construction of femininity. It brought into the same pioneering ideology that historians have identified as a foundation of New Zealand's masculine identity. In doing so, the scheme assumed a more equal, connatural relationship between male and female than that accepted in traditional western ideology. Despite the imperial origins of its activities, the Peace Scout scheme identified New Zealand's physical and ideological indigenes - whether physical or ideological - not just as a source of difference, but as a sign of unique ideology that should be celebrated. As such, it provides a site of complex interplay between nationalism, colonialism and imperialism in the construction of New Zealand femininity.

Description
Citation
Keywords
Cossgrove, David, 1852-1920, Girls--Societies and clubs--New Zealand--History, Girl Scouts--New Zealand--History, Scouting (Youth activity)--New Zealand--History, Youth movements--New Zealand--History, Femininity--New Zealand--History--20th century
Ngā upoko tukutuku/Māori subject headings
ANZSRC fields of research
Rights
All Rights Reserved