During the end of the 18th and the first half of the 19th centuries a large number of convicts, more males than females, were transported from Britain to the newly found continent of Australia. As a result, female convicts composed only a small part of the convict population. The way in which convict women were described in historical documents and studies of the convict period (discussed in chapter two) is very different from the way they are described recently (discussed in depth in chapter three). In my thesis I will compare the different methods that have been used to create an image of female convicts. (Introduction)