This collection of essays by eminent anthropologists, missiologists and historians explores the hitherto neglected topic of women missionaries and the effect of Christian missionary activity upon women.

F. Bowie, Introduction: Reclaiming Women's Presence - Part I: Women Missionaries - D. Kirkwood, Protestant Missionary Women: Wives and Spinsters - P. Williams, The 'Missing Link': The Recruitment of Women Missionaries in Some English Evangelical Missionary Societies in the Nineteenth Century - C. Swaisland, Wanted: Earnest, Self-Sacrificing Women for Service in South Africa: Nineteenth-Century Recruitment of Single Women to Protestant Missions - V. Cunningham, 'God and Nature Intended You for a Missionary's Wife': Mary Hill, Jane Eyre and Other Missionary Women in the 1840s - Part II: Mission Impact on Women - A. Hastings, Were Women a Special Case? - M. Lapodi, From Heathen Kraal to Christian Home: Anglican Mission Education and African Christian Girls, 1850-1900 - F. Bowie, The Elusive Christian Family: Missionary Attempts to Define Women's Roles: Case Studies from Cameroon - T. Kanogo, Mission Impact on Women in Colonial Kenya - A. Basu, Mary Ann Cooke to Mother Teresa: Christian Missionary Women and Indian Response - E. Isichei, Does Christianity Empower Women? The Case of the Anaguta of Central Nigeria - S. Lund Skar, Catholic Missionaries and Andean Women: Mismatching Views on Gender and Creation - J. Burke, These Catholic Sisters Are All Mamas! Celibacy and the Metaphor of Maternity

'I would strongly recommend this book to anyone, female and male alike, who would want to see justice done to our foremothers in the faith. The book not only informs, it also inspires and makes very pleasurable reading.'New Blackfriars'... a must for anyone, female and male alike, who wishes to take seriously the church's mission and who wants to see justice done to our foremothers in the faith.'Journal of Theology for Southern Africa'... a useful book ... an admirable absence of professional jargon.'The Round Table'Like other volumes in this series, Women and Missions performs a valuable function in portraying women from a different perspective...'Mission Outlook'... the contributions of Sarah Lund Skar and Joan Burke on the themes of creation and celibacy, alone make the book worth reading.'The Expository Times'The great value of this anthology is that it demonstrates that women have been active participants in the modern missionary movement and were often abl