'He struck his wife, but said it was in circumstances of great provocation': gendered conflict in fin de siècle New South Wales.
This article describes the divorce trial of Hannah and George Webb, who appeared in Sydney's Divorce Court in late 1901 before Judge George Bowen Simpson without a jury. Over nine days, Hannah Webb provided a harrowing account of her husband's ongoing abuse, while George Webb described his wife's ad...
| Publicado en: | Women's History Review Vol. 34; no. 6; pp. 1002 - 1021 |
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| Formato: | Artículo |
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Taylor & Francis Ltd
Nov2025
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=188856438&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 188856438 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 09612025 GP6 jtl: Women's History Review issn: 09612025 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Nov2025 vid: 34 iid: 6 pid: 377 pub: Taylor & Francis Ltd artinfo: ui: 188856438 10.1080/09612025.2024.2406601 ppf: 1002 ppct: 19 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: P size: 495KB tig: atl: 'He struck his wife, but said it was in circumstances of great provocation': gendered conflict in fin de siècle New South Wales. aug: au: Lorrison, Marian affil: Independent Researcher, Sydney, Australia su: Family power Divorce lawsuits Social change Simpson, George Domestic violence New South Wales sug: subj: New South Wales Family power Divorce lawsuits Social change Simpson, George Domestic violence keyword: colonial women Divorce domestic violence judicial attitudes lawmaking marital cruelty marriage ab: This article describes the divorce trial of Hannah and George Webb, who appeared in Sydney's Divorce Court in late 1901 before Judge George Bowen Simpson without a jury. Over nine days, Hannah Webb provided a harrowing account of her husband's ongoing abuse, while George Webb described his wife's adulterous affair, fondness for beer, and slovenly housekeeping. Drawing on Court Reporting Office transcriptions, divorce records, and press reports, my discussion considers what the legal approach to marital cruelty reveals about gender ideals and gendered power in late nineteenth-century Australia. Ample witness confirmation and widespread community knowledge of George Webb's violence render curious the judge's pronouncement that Hannah's allegations of cruelty were 'unfounded and unsubstantiated.' Webb v Webb shows how the law could silence women by discounting their testimony, with the cards often stacked against women who appeared in court. Newly established cruelty provisions were open to individual judicial interpretation and the belief persisted that wives could avoid violence by modifying their behaviour. At a time of social change, uneducated and unskilled women like Hannah Webb remained disempowered and dependent while a male breadwinner held the balance of marital power. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Copyright of Women's History Review is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. item: Women's History Review holder: Taylor & Francis Ltd dt: @attributes: year: 2025 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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