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- Title
'It is Not Good for the Man to Be Alone?' Irish Protestant Missionary Bachelorhood and Changes in Missionary Marriage Trends in the Late Nineteenth Century.
- Authors
Jamieson, Catherine
- Abstract
This paper examines changes in male missionary marriage trends in the late nineteenth century. By examining the number of bachelor missionaries in two Irish Protestant missionary organisations, this paper argues that there was an increased acceptance of unmarried male missionaries in the mission workforce, a change that is reflected in other contemporary mission societies. Using case studies of three Irish Protestant missionary bachelors, this paper shows how bachelorhood influenced men’s missionary experiences in their social relationships, daily life and living arrangements. While accepting missionary bachelors, mission societies continued to emphasise the importance of Christian marriage as the ideal state of masculinity and femininity. Therefore, missionary bachelorhood was constructed as a temporary period of noble sacrifice during which men devoted themselves to mission work, while remaining expectant of marriage in the future.
- Subjects
MISSIONARIES; MALE missionaries; PROTESTANT missions; BACHELORS; MARRIAGE; HISTORY of masculinity; HUMAN sexuality in religion; NINETEENTH century; HISTORY
- Publication
Gender & History, 2017, Vol 29, Issue 2, p387
- ISSN
0953-5233
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1111/1468-0424.12295