Bailey, Susan. Women and the British Empire: An Annotated Guide to Sources. New York: Garland Publishing, 1983.

Although slightly out of date, this text is still a reliable source for students to look for sources for research papers. The book lists primary and secondary sources on British women as wives of administrators, missionaries, and settlers. It has some information on colonized women.

Burton, Antoinette. Burdens of History. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1994.

In this excellent text, the author argues that British middle-class feminists appropriated imperial ideology to underpin their own claims for equality.

Burton, Antoinette, ed., Politics and Empire in Victorian Britain. New York: Palgrave, 2001.

An outstanding reader that offers an excellent range of primary sources on the British Empire, including many of women.

Chaudhuri, Nupur and Margaret Strobel, eds., Western Women and Imperialism. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1992.

A series of excellent essays that shed light on the relationship of women to imperialism. The majority of the essays deal with the British Empire.

Dangarembga, Tsitsi. Nervous Conditions. Washington: The Seal Press, 1988.

Set in the British colony of Rhodesia in 1968, this novel focuses on two young African women and the tensions that their attendance at Western-orientated schools creates for their own identity and for their place in their family.

Emecheta, Buchi. Head Above Water. Oxford: Heinemann, 1986.

An autobiography written by the best-selling author from Nigeria, which chronicles her struggle to “keep her head above water” after she moves to live in England in the early 1960s.

Frost, Lucy. No Place For a Nervous Lady: Voices From the Australian Bush. Queensland: University of Queensland, 1984.

An excellent primary source consisting of excerpts from the diaries and letters of women living in Australia during the early years of British settlement.

Midgley, Clare, ed., Gender and Imperialism. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1998.

An edited collection of nine essays, which provides an excellent introductory source to think about the ways the British Empire shaped the lives of colonized and colonizing men and women in a range of sites of empire.

Morgan, Sally. My Place. Fremantle: Fremantle Arts Centre Press, 1987.

This book provides valuable information on the circumstances of female missionaries in China. Not only does it describe the conditions of these women’s lives in China, but it also delves into their motivations for undertaking missionary work.

Procida, Mary. Married to the Empire. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2000.

An excellent text representative of the new work on British women in the Empire. Procida argues that from the end of the 19th century, British women living in India were central to establishing and sustaining the British Raj.

Seacole, Mary. Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988.

First published in 1857, this autobiography by Mary Seacole recounts her experiences in Jamaica, Panama, and during the Crimean War.

Strobel, Margaret. European Women and the Second British Empire. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1991.

Written by a historian, this book provides an overview of the role of British women in the Empire from roughly 1880.