1926 Denomination and Gender of All Missionaries in Sichuan

Item

Title
1926 Denomination and Gender of All Missionaries in Sichuan
Identifier
DS_0006
Description
Pie and bar charts based on the 1926 WCMAB list, showing the percentage of all missionaries in Sichuan by denomination and gender.
Commentary
These pie and bar charts are based on the list of 607 missionaries in Sichuan compiled by the West China Missions Advisory Board (WCMAB) in 1926 (see the “Is Part Of” dataset record).

This pair of charts show two different visualizations of the same data table representing the percentage of missionaries each society had in Sichuan, divided by gender. The percentages have been calculated out of the total 607 missionaries.

Both charts show that the two largest categories are the women of the biggest categories within the cohort and non-cohort groups, the UCC/CMM and CIM, respectively. Together these two groups of women compose over 1/3rd of the total (38%). After UCC/CMM men, American Methodist and American Baptist women together account for another 19% of the total. Together with the UCC/CMM women, these members of the North American cohort take up 41% of the total.

Due to gender roles at the time, these large numbers did not reflect leadership roles for women, which were still almost exclusively controlled by men. Although single women rose up to leadership within women’s missionary societies, these societies themselves had lesser status within the missionary community.

That UCC/CMM men take up third place tells a lot about their prominent role in the field (13%). They are the only group of cohort men who fall within the upper three quarters of the total. American Methodist, American Baptist and YMCA men combined fall short of their numbers (8.7%). On the pie chart, these remaining groups of cohort men are all crammed into the top left quarter.

Despite their small numbers, these American men had disproportionately high representation in leadership roles. This is likely because all of these American missions were founded before the UCC/CMM arrived on the scene. These men were also influential in the founding of the West China Union University (WCUU), which became the hub for the entire province’s mission work.
Creator
Cory Willmott
Date Created
2024
Is Part Of
The West China Missions Advisory Board’s Directory 1926, According to Missions
Provenance
Original scholarship by Cory Willmott.
Access Rights
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Publisher
SIUE
Record Date
2024-11-06
Contributor
Cory Willmott
Type
Dataset
Item sets
Datasets
Media
DS_0006a 1926 ALL Denominations & Gender.png
DS_0006b 1926 ALL Denominations and Gender Pie.png

Linked resources

Items with "Has Part: 1926 Denomination and Gender of All Missionaries in Sichuan"
Title Class
The West China Missions Advisory Board’s Directory 1926, According to Missions Dataset