A Female Force despite Mockery and Contempt: Women’s Mission Groups in Norway as Social, Religious and International Network Builders

Abstract

In this essay we will turn our attention to a rather distinctive phenomenon of Norwegian history; the rise and activity of the network of so-called women’s mission groups. From its outset in the first half of the nineteenth century, this movement was part of the international call for female participation in the new cause of propagating the Christian message overseas. But in Norway the movement underwent a self-development that gave it a distinctive role, not only in the missionary movement but also in the sociopolitical formation of modern Norwegian society as a whole and in the creation of international links.