Technical Communication Quarterly Mar 1998

Feminizing the professional: The government reports of Flora Annie Steel

Rebecca J. Sutcliffe University of Saskatchewan

Abstract

Despite being raised in a culture that denied her access to formal education and employment, Flora Annie Steel became an Inspector of Female Schools in the Punjab, India, in 1884. Her inspection reports for the occupying British government of India are the focus of this study, which examines texts within the context of British imperialism and late‐nineteenth century report conventions. The study concludes 1) that cultural expectations for women in imperialism influenced Steel's response to the genre and 2) that the report genre may have been fluid within imperialism, crossing boundaries between professional and government writing pertaining today. The study suggests that, historically, we need to study these genres of writing from the perspective of economic and political expansion as genres of imperialism.

Journal
Technical Communication Quarterly
Published
1998-03-01
DOI
10.1080/10572259809364622
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Topics
genre theory gender and writing editorial matter
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Citation Context

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References (21) · 1 in this index

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CrossRef global citation count: 14 View in citation network → Build reading path →

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