Drawing from the rich records of Protestant British women’s missionary societies, this dissertation explores the motivations, goals, efforts, and experiences of British women who pursued careers as missionary doctors and nurses dedicated to serving Indian women in the decades before Indian independence in 1947. While most scholarship on women missionaries focuses on the imperial heyday of the Victorian and Edwardian eras, this study highlights women medical missionaries in the late colonial period and argues for the significance of this transitional moment, a time of deepening change in medical science and clinical practice, imperial rule and nationalist politics, gender relations, and the nature of the missionary enterprise in both India and Britain. Analysis of the relationship between missionaries in India and their managers in Britain reveals the tensions among women who shared a common commitment, yet brought different perspectives and priorities to women’s missionary work. A life-cycle approach to work and career allows examination of individual women’s development as healthcare professionals and as missionaries. Telling the stories of missionaries’ everyday experiences shows that a sense of purpose, preparation, professionalism, and positive role models sustained those women who were able to meet the great demands of medical missionary work. These missionaries often overcame obstacles and challenges through negotiation and collaboration with patients and their families as well as reflection and learning from experience. Many came to believe they had achieved measurable progress and made a positive difference in the quality of Indian women’s lives. The missionaries’ commitment to Christian medical service for Indian women reached beyond the colonial era and eventually embraced a transfer of leadership to Indian Christians. [WU1] [WU1]Your abstract will not be accepted if it exceeds the limit by even one word.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oklahoma, 1992. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 192-202).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Georgia State University, 2007. / Title from file title page. Reiner Smolinski, committee chair; Tanya Caldwell, Malinda Snow, committee members. Electronic text (661 p.) : digital, PDF file. Description based on contents viewed Nov. 7, 2007. Includes bibliographical references (p. 633-661).

Thesis (M. Div.)--Emmanuel School of Religion, 1996. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaf 72).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Trinity International University, 2009. / Abstract. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 143-147).

Thesis (M.A.)--Liberty University, 2010. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (D. Min.)--Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Auckland, 1996. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 223-232).

Was it worthwhile? The thesis asks this question of the life and work of female faith missionaries who served in Western Australia with the Australian Aborigines’ Mission and/or the United Aborigines’ Mission, during the twentieth century. In 1902, the New South Wales Aborigines’ Mission adopted faith mission principles based on those of the China Inland Mission founded in 1865. The mission expanded into Western Australia in 1908 and changed its name to the Australian Aborigines’ Mission. From 1929, it was known as the United Aborigines’ Mission. The research began with a historiography of the China Inland Mission and the United Aborigines’ Mission and its antecedents. The analysis of the principles of these two missions identified that some characteristics of a faith mission were present in the New South Wales Aborigines’ Mission from the beginning and others were never adopted. It established that from 1902, the New South Wales Aborigines’ Mission upheld the faith principles of trusting God to provide physical needs, not soliciting for funds and not entering into debt. Because most faith missionaries were female, the historiography proceeded to examine texts on women missionaries, including recent work by Australian writers. This recognised that issues of gender, race and class were present within both mission cultures. Five case studies were chosen to cover a period from 1912 when Bertha Telfer arrived in Western Australia until the retirement of Mary Jones in 1971. Using written and oral source material from Indigenous and non-Indigenous perspectives, the research studied the work of five female faith missionaries in south-west Australia: Bertha Telfer/Alcorn, Ethel Hamer/Fryer, Hope Malcolm/Wright, Mary Jones and Melvina Langley/Rowley, with a focus on issues of Evangelicalism, race, gender and class. Preliminary investigation of the women recognized that while only one had professional training and two received missionary training, membership of the interdenominational Christian Endeavour youth movement was a formative influence on all these female missionaries. An investigation into the principles of that organisation, founded in North America in 1881, established it was influenced by the 1858-59 Revival within Evangelicalism in England and North America and it placed a strong emphasis on personal conversion and a commitment to mission. Christian Endeavour spread to Australia by 1883 and was found to have provided limited leadership opportunities to women. The research tracked the experience of the female faith missionaries over six decades of living by faith among the Nyungar people and discovered a lack of identification with Indigenous culture that had its roots in a widely held belief in the superiority of western culture. Associated with this was the Evangelical belief in personal conversion that did not address cross-cultural issues. The UAM identification with the rise of fundamentalism from the 1920s coincided with diminished leadership opportunities for women at a time when women were gaining more choices in the wider Australian community. The thesis concludes that the role of faith missionary was costly to women in terms of their health and wellbeing. In the context of oppressive government policies towards Indigenous Australians, the poverty and marginalisation experienced by the women, when combined with compassion, created solidarity with Nyungar people. In some cases, this reduced the barriers of race and gender and resulted in the conversion of some Nyungar people, contributing to the formation of an Indigenous and Evangelical church. These findings are significant because they point to new understanding of mission, conversion and Aboriginal-missionary relations and cultures and of the role played by female faith missionaries in the shared mission history of Indigenous and non-Indigenous Western Australians.

Thesis (Th. D.)--Boston University School of Theology, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 441-488).