The Gospel of Gentility: American Women Missionaries in Turn-Of-The-Century China

by Jane Hunter

Book Overview

At the turn of the century, women represented over half of the American foreign mission force and had settled in "heathen" China to preach the lessons of Christian domesticity. In this engrossing narrative, Jane Hunter uses diaries, reminiscences, and letters to recreate the backgrounds of the missionaries and the problems and satisfactions they found in China. Her book offers insights not only into the experiences of these women but also into the...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0300046030
• ISBN13: 9780300046038
• Release Date: September 1989
• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Length: 342 Pages
• Weight: 1.24 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.1" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Women Missionaries in China

I rec'd the book in good condition, as described by seller. I am very happy with this purchase.

great read

Great primary source that gave me an A on my college paper on Missionaries in China. I was very happy. Shipped quickly too!

A Valuable Read for an Understanding of Women Missionaries

Hunter presented a thoroughly researched and entertainingly written text examining the lives of American missionary women between the late 1890s and the early 1920s. Hunter incorporated a substantial amount of correspondence written by the missionary women, which supported her conclusions throughout the book. Hunter also provided an explanation of the expectations for women in both America and China during this time period and explored relationships between significant historical events in China and America. The major thesis that Hunter successfully proved was that the life of a missionary woman was quite paradoxical. On the one hand, during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, middle-class American women were expected to focus on domestic issues and be completely dependent on men, yet the women who traveled to China as missionaries rejected that role through their actions of independence and leadership. Interestingly, Hunter believed that women did not attack, challenge or verbally reject the traditional female model, rather they lived lives of sacrifice (as a good female should) while also participating in a role that more closely resembled that of the professional woman. Hunter examined the multiple dimensions and ramifications of this paradox for both the missionary and Chinese women throughout her book. An important distinction Hunter exposed was the difference between the lives of married and single women who chose to go into the missionary field. For women who married, choosing a spouse and desiring to enter the field of missionary work were completely intertwined. The choice of a spouse was almost a secondary consideration for a woman after she realized she had a calling to seek a missionary's life. Unfortunately, for many women, the natural biological consequences of marriage - children - were frequently not a planned or even wanted event. Many missionary women apparently subscribed to the contemporary belief that women who entered professions were somehow incapable of conceiving and bearing children, so once children came onto the scene; women were forced to focus on their domestic lives. So, as a natural result of childbearing, married women were among the first to call for single women to enter the missionary field.Single women joining the missionary field, generally had been raised in the rural Midwest. According to Hunter, these women were able to blend personal needs of rewarding work, achievement in a foreign land, economic security, respect from familial communities and independence, while at the same time not challenging the expected role of females during this time period. These women were "professional" women without the stigma and loss of feminine identity generally attached to these borderline social outcasts. Missionary women, however, were perceived as lacking fashion sense and feminine qualities that other women of the day so eagerly sought to maintain due to social pressures. The Chinese community also