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

Rating:
Summary: A Valuable Read for an Understanding of Women Missionaries
Review: 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 saw missionary women as oddities, but according to Hunter, this allowed women a tremendous degree of security and freedom of movement in their daily lives, which they would not have experienced had they remained in America. Since western women had big feet, long noses, traveled freely, and did not behave in a servile manner, western women had an almost equal relationship with Chinese males, who interestingly did not see them as either women or men. Also since women frequently assumed the role of teacher, they were accorded the respect that is traditionally provided with that position in China.
The churches at home in America sponsored both men and women missionaries, however, the women's auxiliaries raised money for the single female missionaries and considered this money outside of the general funds so as to not strain church finances. A positive result of this separate fund raising identified by Hunter was that women both in America and in China could claim sole responsibility for successful recruitment of Chinese women to the Christian religion. Since only female missionaries could preach to Chinese women, then these recruits could "belong" to American women. When missionaries first went to China, Chinese women were not seen outside of their homes, but missionaries brought footbinding and other female mistreatments to the attention of the world and successfully abolished footbinding while welcoming young girls into the missionary school system.

Hunter explored the racial and gender tensions resulting from the missionary women. Married women raising children in China employed Chinese workers as both childcare workers and servants. Since married women were truly the only source of Americanization of their children, having children playing with Chinese children or being care for by an "amah" raised several problems. Culturally, Chinese treated their children differently, and American parents misunderstood these differences. Hunter analogized between the American South during slavery and the relationships that developed between American women employers and their Chinese servants, whom they saw as beneath them and needing of help. Missionary women also faced the painful prospect of having their children leave them upon reaching puberty to acquire a proper American education back home. Hunter discussed the changes, rewards and trials faced by married women at these different stages of life.
This book was truly fascinating and thought provoking. Hunter successfully described the lives of missionary women, both single and married, and the contributions they made to the lives of Chinese women. Hunter also exposed the many negative aspects of missionary work that were brought to the Chinese people by American women. The identification and discussion of racist and classist issues that accompanied missionaries were critical to the overall understanding of the ramifications of missionary work in China. Hunter's text is a valuable read for anyone interested in not only missionary work, but the evolution of American female roles in the public sphere and the different avenues that women sought to achieve personal satisfaction without "rocking the gender boat" in an aggressive and threatening fashion.