“Errand of Mercy”: american women missionaries and philanthropists in the near east, 1820-1930

Abstract

The American Protestant educational and philanthropic work in the Near
East, 1820-1939, has been well documented in historiography. This article
takes up the critical, yet unexplored, role of American women who
participated in that unique cultural campaign. American women projected
themselves as role models of female empowerment and status, although this
image was marked by ironies. While attempting to educate and empower
Christian and Muslim women in the Near East, American mentors revealed
and perpetuated their own circumscribed status within the U.S. society.
However, in the long run, this cultural encounter allowed both sides to
recognize the limitations imposed by their respective societies and to try to
override them by stepping out into the public arena. They did so not through
radical solutions but, instead, by performing redefined and expanded tasks of
domesticity. They succeeded in turning those tasks into professional roles thus
opening the way for women in the Near East and the U.S. to claim more
assertive and influential public positions.