"Consecrated Amazons." Australian and New Zealand single women missionary pioneers in Asia, 1875-1900.

Abstract

This chapter inroduces some broad issues intended to encourage reflection and research on the life and work of two hundred single Australian and New Zealand (ANZ) women, including some widows, who served as Protestant missionaries in Asia between the early 1870s and 1900. Married women who accompanied their husbands on missionary service are not included. Many more women, single and married, went to the Pacific Islands, South America and Africa. If all female missionaries were included, the number of women from Australia and New Zealand who served with domestic and foreign missions in the last quarter of the 19th century would exceed one thousand—an extraordinary number given the small population of both countries during the 19th century. The ratio of men to women is unclear, but it is reasonable to assert that, including wives, there were TWO women for every male. The gross disparity in male-female discussion in missionary histories reflects an enduring injustice to women. Show more