Ladies of the Light: Women Missionaries of the Church of England Zenana Missionary Society c1850-1900

Abstract

Energised by the evangelical influence in Britain, the foundation of missionary societies enabled missionaries to be sent during the nineteenth century to convert the heathen in different parts of the world. This thesis examines the involvement of women with the missionary societies. It considers how they made the transition from being unpaid assistants to the male missionaries to becoming missionaries in their own right by the end of the nineteenth century. By looking at the selection process and the journal of the Church of England Zenana Missionary Society (CEZMS), this thesis argues that while religious belief played a very considerable part in their motivation to become missionaries, women had also been enabled by the changes in the secular world of the nineteenth century.