The Protestant Orphan Asylum and the Montreal Ladies' Benevolent Society : a case study in Protestant child charity in Montreal, 1822-1900

As Lower Canada/Quebec industrialized, the system of poor relief that developed followed a private, confessional model. While the Catholic Church controlled services for Catholics, the lay Protestant elite controlled the relief network for their community. Elite women played a major role in this network, managing most of the charities for women and children. This thesis uses the two most important female-directed Montreal charities---the Protestant Orphan Asylum and the Montreal Ladies' Benevolent Society---to study Protestant charity and particularly child charity from 1822 to 1900. It examines the organization and work of female charity committees as well as the services offered, the relevance of gender to charity management, and attitudes to childhood and family. Extensive source material, from the archives of the two societies, enables an analysis of the characteristics of the children admitted, as well as of the management committees, and their policies. In this period, serving on a charity board was an expected activity for elite women. As a result, committees had many members. However, this thesis reveals that only a small number of women actually participated in the substantial administrative and organizational work that was involved in running a charity. This lack of participation made it more difficult to supervise the institutions and to organize fund-raising events. Formed by the elite to regulate as well as to help the poor, these charities permit an examination of working-class agency. Organisers used their control of admissions and discharges as well as the institutional regime to impose their values of parenting and work. Nonetheless, the study of these two charities shows that families managed to use charities to shelter their children temporarily, occasionally circumventing restrictive access rules or challenging a charity's refusal to discharge children. As "ladies" acting in public, the women in control of these charities were influenced by restrictive gender ideologies, particularly that of "separate spheres." Gender conscious and conservative, they respected social conventions in their public appearances and deferred to men in critical areas such as investments. Yet, at the same time, they affirmed their abilities and defended their authority and their autonomy in areas considered in the women's sphere, including child-care and charity management. Understanding charity from within a conservative culture that emphasized religion, tradition, and values like work, family, and social hierarchy, these benevolent women sought to relieve the poor but they also sought to train useful citizens. In their charity work, they faced many complex questions connected to child abuse, changes in apprenticeship systems, adequate training for children, and the rights of parents. This study argues that both their conservative approach and their women's culture, centered on a personal approach, influenced the way they dealt with these issues. Of equal importance, however, was the experience they had acquired over years of child-charity work. As a result of these factors, their emphasis on protecting the children under their care increased over time. Consequently, the policies they developed in favour of helping families with temporary care and in favour of using apprenticeship and finally extended training in the institution itself diverged from those advocated by late-century reform groups, which opted for placing children in families instead of institutions and which advocated more restrictive, scientific charity methods.

Récupéré en direct depuis OpenAlex et désinversé. Les résumés ne sont pas conservés dans cette base de données : les index inversés représentent 8,6 Go des 9,3 Go de texte de la base, et le serveur dispose de 13 Go libres.