Links in the Chain: Maritime Women and the Protestant Missionary Movement, 1870–1925

Throughout the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the experience of women in Western society, particularly that of middle-class women, was shaped by the tenets of a domestic ideology that stressed the notion of public and private spheres. This study moves beyond an examination of the "separate sphere" inhabited by Maritime women and, instead, focuses on the ways that women's roles in Maritime society were negotiated and renegotiated in the interstices where change occurs; the mission fields of the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries provided one of those spaces. By examining the religious literature of the day, personal papers, letters and diaries, articles in Church journals and magazines – particularly those written by women for women – and the official papers of various mission organizations, this dissertation explains how Maritime women, both at home and abroad, entered a larger, public sphere far removed from the private domains assigned to them by an all-encompassing domestic ideology that stressed women's particular role as wife and mother, exemplar and protector of Western mores and civilization. Even though Maritime women did not openly challenge the subordinate role assigned to them by both the church and separate spheres ideology, changes in their interpretation and adaptation of separate spheres doctrine can be traced through an examination of their participation in, and support for, the foreign mission cause during the period from 1870-1925. The 84 women missionaries whose experiences are at the core of this dissertation, all of whom were participants in the Protestant foreign missionary movement from 1870-1925, did not change the patriarchal nature of mission work. Yet, their participation in the foreign missionary movement, combined with the activism of their mission supporters at home, did allow middle-class Maritime women to redefine their role in a public sphere without renouncing the private sphere assigned to them. Their belief in a mandate that stressed "women's work for women" allowed them not only to participate in missions but also to influence the very direction of the mission movement. Their efforts and experiences present an excellent case study for feminist historians interested in the ways in which women tend to choose to work within, rather than confront, ideologies which would limit and constrain their activities to acceptable spheres – a problem which continues to challenge women today.

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