Modern Women, Modernizing Men: The Changing Missions of Three Professional Women in Asia and Africa, 1902-1969
https://archives.anglican.ca/link/article37419
- Author
- Brouwer, Ruth Compton, 1941-
- Reviewer
- Rutherdale, Myra, 1961-2014
- Material Type
- Book review
- Journal
- Journal of the Canadian Church Historical Society
- Date
- 2003 Fall
- Author
- Brouwer, Ruth Compton, 1941-
- Reviewer
- Rutherdale, Myra, 1961-2014
- Material Type
- Book review
- Date
- 2003 Fall
- Volume
- 45
- Issue
- 2
- Page
- 234-236
- Notes
- "This is Ruth Compton Brouwer's second book on the subject of Canadian women who went overseas to carve out independent professional careers. While Brouwer's first book focused on the mission movement itself, and patterns that emerged across the lives of over one hundred Presbyterian women, this one provides a close study of the individual experiences of three fascinating Christian women and their international contributions. According to Brouwer Dr. Choné Oliver, Dr. Florence Murray and Margaret Wrong each worked toward modernizing mission in their own way. Their life's work represented a paradigm shift away from the traditional 'women's work for women' mission model, to a more modern professional relationship wherein women worked within international communities of both men and women. Drawing on diaries, letters, and journals, as well as an impressive list of interviews, Brouwer places these women firmly within the contexts of professionalization, religion and modern feminism. Interspersed with revealing photographs, the book includes an introductory chapter followed by one chapter on each of the three women and a final chapter that brings together several of the common areas of concern shared by the protagonists" (p. 234). "What is unique about the work of all three women is the extent to which they wished to inspire a new generation of educated indigenous professionals who would become what Oliver described as 'colleagues and eventual successors' .... In promoting literacy and sharing their medical knowledge, Wrong, Oliver and Murray would have more in common with the NGO development workers of the late twentieth century than with the contemporaneous evangelical mission movement" (p. 235-236).
- Subjects
- Women missionaries - Canada - Biography - Book reviews
- Oliver, Belle Choné, 1875-1947 - Book reviews
- Murray, Florence J. (Florence Jessie), 1894-1975 - Book reviews
- Wrong, Margaret, 1887-1948- Book reviews
- Location
- General Synod Archives