Masters Degrees (History)

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If you had been a man you would have gone a very long way… : the public and private politics of Emeline du Toit, 1898–c. 1948
(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2020-03) McRae, Cailin; Ehlers, Anton; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of History.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Born as the youngest child of two of the most prominent Afrikaners of the 19th and 20th centuries, Emeline du Toit lived an explicitly political life, embodying her beliefs through her actions during some of the most important periods of Afrikaner nationalist development. With an innate ability to marry the public and private aspects of her life, Emmie used her personal connections to her benefit while working in the uppermost rungs of the National Party in the 1930s and 40s as one of a handful of women who were part and parcel of the decision-making processes. She would later join the right-wing, fascist group, the Ossewabrandwag, when she felt that the party was being weighed down by personal politics as opposed to working toward a notion of volkseenheid [unity of the nation/people] and the republican ideal she held on to with particular fervour. This work contributes to the broader body of the nationalist Afrikaner historiography and while illustrating the life of an outspoken and politically driven Afrikaner woman, who may otherwise have been known only by the footnotes marking the pages of biographies of the men she regarded as her friends and colleagues.