In the late nineteenth century, the need for women physicians in missionary hospitals in Canton, China, led to expanded opportunities for both Western women and Chinese women. The presence of Western women as medical missionaries in China was made possible by certain changes within the Western missionary movement. Beginning in the 1870s, increasingly large numbers of women were forming women's foreign mission societies dedicated to the support of women's foreign mission work. Beyond giving the women who organized the societies a formal activity outside their home circles, these organizations enabled an increasing number of single women missionaries (as opposed to women who were part of the more typical husband-wife missionary teams) to work abroad. Before the formation of these women's organizations, mission funds had been collected by ministers and other church leaders, most of whom emphasized local parish work. What money was spent on foreign missions was under the control of exclusively male foreign mission boards whose members were uniformly uneasy about the new idea of sending single women out into the mission field. But as women's groups began raising impressive amounts of money donated specifically in support of single women missionaries, the home churches bowed both to women's changing roles at home and to increasing numbers of single professional missionary women abroad.
Although the idea of employing a woman physician was a daring one for most Western missionaries in China, the advantages of a well-trained Western woman physician could not be ignored by Canton mission hospital administrators. A woman physician could attend women patients without offending any of the accepted conventions of female modesty. Eventually, some of these women were able to found and head separate women's medical institutions, thereby gaining access to professional responsibilities far beyond those available to them at home.
These developments also led to the attainment of valuable training and status by a significant number of Chinese women. The presence of women physicians in Canton mission hospitals led many Chinese women to avail themselves of Western medicine who might otherwise have failed to do so because of their culture's emphasis on physical modesty. In order to provide enough women physicians for these patients, growing numbers of young Chinese women were given instruction in medicine. This enabled them to earn an independent income, something that was then largely unavailable to women within traditional Chinese society. Many women graduates were eventually able to go out on their own into private practice, freeing themselves of dependence upon the mission community.
The most important result of these opportunities was the establishment of clear evidence of women's abilities and strengths, clear reasons for affording women expanded opportunities, and clear role models for how these abilities and responsibilities might be exercised.
1. Which one of the following statements about Western women missionaries working abroad can be inferred from the passage?(A) There were very few women involved in foreign missionary work before the 1870s.
(B) Most women working abroad as missionaries before the 1870s were financed by women's foreign mission societies.
(C) Most women employed in mission hospitals abroad before the 1870s were trained as nurses rather than as physicians.
(D) The majority of professional women missionaries working abroad before the 1870s were located in Canton, China.
(E) Most women missionaries working abroad before the 1870s were married to men who were also missionaries.
2. The author mentions that most foreign mission boards were exclusively male most probably in order to(A) Contrast foreign mission boards with the boards of secular organizations sending aid to China.
(B) Explain the policy of foreign mission boards toward training Chinese women in medicine.
(C) Justify the preference of foreign mission boards for professionally qualified missionaries.
(D) Help account for the attitude of foreign mission boards towards sending single women missionaries abroad.
(E) Differentiate foreign mission boards from boards directing parish work at home.
3. Which one of the following best describes the organization of the passage?(A) A situation is described, conditions that brought about the situation are explained, and results of the situation are enumerated.
(B) An assertion is made, statements supporting and refuting the assertion are examined, and a conclusion is drawn.
(C) An obstacle is identified, a variety of possible ways to overcome the obstacle are presented, and an opinion is ventured.
(D) A predicament is outlined, factors leading up to the predicament are scrutinized, and a tentative resolution of the predicament is recommended.
(E) A development is analyzed, the drawbacks and advantages accompanying the development are contrasted, and an eventual outcome is predicted.
4. Which one of the following, if true, would most undermine the author's analysis of the reason for the increasing number of single women missionaries sent abroad beginning in the 1870s?(A) The Western church boards that sent the greatest number of single women missionaries abroad had not received any financial support from women's auxiliary groups.
(B) The women who were sent abroad as missionary physicians had been raised in families with a strong history of missionary commitment.
(C) Most of the single missionary women sent abroad were trained as teachers and translators rather than as medical practitioners.
(D) The western church boards tended to send abroad single missionary women who had previously been active in local parish work.
(E) None of the single missionary women who were sent abroad were active members of foreign mission boards.
5. According to the passage, which one of the following was a factor in the acceptance of Western women as physicians in mission hospitals in Canton, China?(A) The number of male physicians practicing in that region.
(B) The specific women's foreign mission society that supplied the funding.
(C) The specific home parishes from which the missionary women came.
(D) The cultural conventions of the host society.
(E) The relations between the foreign mission boards and the hospital administrators.
6. The passage suggests which one of the following about medical practices in late-nineteenth-century Canton, China?(A) There was great suspicion of non-Chinese medical practices.
(B) Medical care was more often administered in the home than in hospitals.
(C) It was customary for women physicians to donate a portion of their income for the maintenance of their extended family.
(D) It was not customary for female patients to be treated by male physicians.
(E) Young women tended to be afforded as many educational opportunities in medicine as young men were.
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Updated on: 08 May 2020, 10:45
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