Helen Barrett Montgomery: The Global Mission of Domestic Feminism.By Kendal P. Mobley. Waco, Tex.: Baylor University Press, 2009. x + 335 pp. $39.95 paper.

摘要

Kendal P. Mobley’s biography of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-centurynsocial reformer Helen Barrett Montgomery astutely explores the missionarynleader’s motivation and influence. Montgomery might be most remembered for contributions to the ecumenical woman’s missionary movement and hern1910 book, Western Women in Eastern Lands, but she was also was anWellesley graduate, licensed Baptist preacher, Rochester school boardnreformer, Women’s Educational Industrial Union leader, progressivist, andnfriend of Susan B. Anthony. On the surface, Montgomery’s conservativentheological views seem to contradict her feminist values, but Mobley tracesnthe life of Montgomery to show how she integrated reformist feminismnwithin the domestic sphere of home and family. For Montgomery, the spreadnof Christianity contributed to women’s uplift, an educated motherhood, andnultimately the social and political emancipation of women.