Medical missionaries in Guangzhou: The initiators of the modern women’s rights movement in China

Abstract

Some work has been done on the medical missionaries in China, but medical education for women in Guangzhou (Canton) by missionaries has not received very much scholarly attention. This article seeks to assess their impact on Chinese women, focusing on how western male doctors broke the prohibition on Chinese women from entering public places. Thereafter, women could go to college, and the medical missionaries created a new class of women medical professionals in Canton. I argue that by making a deliberate move for social change, medical missionaries in Guangzhou initiated a significant transformation in the social status of Chinese women. They were not only agents of changes but also the initiators of the modern women’s rights movement in China.