Missionaries and Gender Relations
in West Africa and Asia

Since marriage, and in particular monogamous marriage, was of supreme importance to the church, gender relations was a major concern to European missionaries in Africa and Asia. Indeed, aware of the central role of women in social reproduction (as wives and mothers), missionary activity often targeted women. In Asia and Africa, missionaries advocated against polygamy. In China, they condemned such practices as the binding of women’s feet to induce the “lotus gait.” Missionaries also worked for the abolition of slave trade, slavery, and other forms of dependent labour. In Africa, the majority of slaves were women, since women bore the burden of reproduction and production. Thus, the major beneficiaries of slave labour were free and noble women (E-30.32.061 and
E-30.29.074). Gender relations were thus complex, and ties of kinship and gerontocracy often united elderly women and men in Africa against young men and women. Missionaries were also the first to seriously undertake the education of women in Africa and Asia. (E-30.28.043, E-30.28.046 and A-30.01.017). It is perhaps not surprising, then, that women were among the earliest converts to the church in Africa and Asia.