Lausanne World Pulse – Women in World Evangelization: More Study Needed
By Sandi Kim
From the time of creation, God blessed both man and woman to “be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it” (Genesis 1:28). As we continue to read redemptive history from Genesis to Revelation, God’s design has been for all of creation, and both men and women specifically, to be filled with the knowledge of the living God and to proclaim the good news (Mark 16:15). From Priscilla and Aquila to William and Catherine Booth, men and women in partnership have advanced the gospel together throughout history. In the modern missionary movement, the partnership between men and women in proclaiming the good news, and the role of women in particular, has not diminished, but has grown stronger. However, a search of available materials does not reveal much consideration and in-depth analysis of the current strong and strategic influence of women from across the world involved in world evangelization today. This is an unfortunate travesty that must be addressed.
Throughout the age of modern missions, women from Great Britain, Europe and North America found increasing influence in the realm of world missions both on the homefront through “an impressive array of mission societies,”1 as well as on the international front as foreign missionaries. Christian missions afforded Western women, especially those from middle and upper classes, the opportunity to exercise their power and skills in the socially acceptable sphere of religion which was considered at that time “feminine.”2
Studies on women in global missions are primarily qualitative biographical and case studies rather than quantitative systematic analysis.
Today, a brief Internet search on women in global missions in one missions magazine showed only four articles throughout the 1980s, no directly related articles since 1989 and only an incidental article in 2001. Whatever reputable studies on women in global missions there are, they are focused on Western female missionaries from the dawn of the modern missionary movement in the 1800s on into the 1900s, and not on the growing number of women from the global South who are also engaged in global missions.
Studies on women in global missions are primarily qualitative biographical and case studies rather than quantitative systematic analysis. Most notably, these qualitative studies are usually written by Western women about Western women, focusing on women as “influencers,” social reformers, advocates and educators.3 Unfortunately, this is not reflective of the current direction in which Christianity is growing most, that is in the global South, and as Dana Robert argues, “The current demographic shift in world Christianity should be analyzed as a women’s movement.”4