Cross Purposes

Abstract

Focusing on the women's foreign missionary movement, this article looks at the publication practices of Protestant women to determine the ideas they cultivated about womanhood and social involvement and how these ideas were linked to the Progressive political climate of the time. The primary construction of womanhood coalesced around themes of piety, sacrifice, education, motherhood, and service to others. Most significant, however, was the emphasis on influencing others and the use of missionary publications to further this goal. Publications were widely distributed in the United States as well as to women in other countries. Thus, through content of the publications and distribution practices, missionary women supported an ideology of intervention and service that formed the backbone of the social and political agenda of U.S. political life during the emergence of the Progressive Era.

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Janet M. Cramer

JANET M. CRAMER is an assistant professor in the Communication and Journalism Department at the University of New Mexico. This article expands on data gathered for her dissertation, which examined the history of women's foreign missionary publications within the context of colonial theory, nation building, and imperialism.