“Seeing the effects of industrialization on women in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Scotland can help women in the present redefine how they want to construct their future ecological relationships.”
— Dana Lai, MA Interdisciplinary Humanities
2021 Canada Graduate Scholarship – Master’s Awards (CGS-M) recipient Dana Lai introduces her research on Scottish women’s identity as revealed through their historic writings from the Industrial Age. Lai believes that within the current context of climate change, a return to the literature that emerged out of the Industrial Age can help us understand how industrialization has formed the working woman and alienated her.
“Women’s writing, both fiction and non-fiction, can illuminate the lived experiences of women, and explored through an ecocritical lens, can be seen as a form of past truth that can inform and improve the future,” said Dana Lai, MA Interdisciplinary Humanities student and 2021 CGS-M award winner (her faculty supervisor is Dr. Holly Nelson, Ph.D.).
“The rich and mysterious stratum of knowledge that permeates our natural world, and that goes unnoticed as a result of our postmodernist existence, can be accessed through the fictional voices of women in history," she said.
She continued, “Seeing the effects of industrialization on women in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Scotland can help women in the present redefine how they want to construct their future ecological relationships.”
In her research summary, Lai explains that she intends to explore the consequences of the Industrial Revolution, after the Union of 1707, on Scottish women, through a focus on novels authored by women—such as those written by Mary Brunton that highlight the predicament of women removed from the country and forced into labour in the city—as well as on working-class women poets like Ellen Johnston.
Here below, Lai introduces her research on Scottish women’s identity during the Industrial Revolution as revealed through their historic writings. She tells what she hopes to uncover.
What inspired you to pursue your chosen topic?
I am inspired by the silences in history, specifically the past voices of working-class women in Scotland. I believe that Scottish women played a complex role in colonization. I am originally from Nova Scotia and come from a working-class family that descended from the Highlands, a result of the clearances and Scottish diaspora after the Union of 1707. I have always been interested in Scottish literature and until I started my research here at Trinity Western University, I did not realize that Scottish literature was seen as a field in its own right, independent of English literature. Dr. Holly Faith Nelson inspired me to pursue this area that is close to my heart and heritage. I am grateful for her scholarly expertise, as Scottish studies is such a distinct field.
What do you hope to uncover by investigating the fictional voices of women in history?
I hope to uncover what made the nineteenth-century Scottish woman unique and plan to draw this out within the context of an ecological framework positioned against the forces of industrialization. Literature helps us understand the conflicted relationship between nature, industry, and humanity. The movement away from an agricultural and village-based life to the harsh reality of the industrial city brings to light the many intersectional issues involved in production and reproduction and exposes the loss of kinship and familial connection experienced by working-class women.
Do you see any connections or parallels between women’s issues in history compared with the current concerns for women today?
While women’s lives have changed for the better in the west, I believe that we still suffer from gender stereotyping. While the goal for the nineteenth-century working-class family was for the father to earn enough wages so that women could stay home and care for the family, this was not always realized. Like today, women had to work outside the home, combining their paid jobs with the duties and responsibilities of housework, childbearing, and childcare. Women still experience domestic abuse, workplace harassment, and they continue to fight for equal wages around the world. The nineteenth century is a profound source of knowledge that can teach us the limits of our progress, how far we have come, but also how we can improve the lives of women and their families worldwide. Because of the digital revolution, we tend to think the industrial revolution is behind us. This is far from reality though, and climate change is evidence of this. How do women therefore fit into the Anthropocene? We must return to the beginning of industrialization to understand this.
See also—2021 Canada Graduate Scholarship – Master’s Awards winners: TWU graduate researchers recognized for excellence:
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