‘To unite their strength with ours’

Abstract

The history of evangelical activity in northern Aotearoa/New Zealand in the early‐19th century is deeply marked by the presence of missionaries. Positioned in an auxiliary role, missionary women as wives and mothers were incorporated into the work of the mission station which primarily involved responsibility for domestic and familial tasks. In the period 1827–45, there were three distinct phases of women's contribution to the public work of the Paihia mission. In the first phase, educated middle‐class women established and taught in the Native Girls' school and English Girls' school. In the second phase and in response to the growing demands of the mission community, unmarried daughters of resident missionaries were recruited as pupil assistants. For three of these girls in particular, this work provided a form of apprenticeship as they were subsequently appointed and registered as missionaries. By the early 1830s, the recruitment of women missionaries entered its third phase when the CMS sent a number of single women from England. This paper reports on the three phases of women's involvement in missionary endeavours and ways in which this increasing level of involvement helped in the development of mission work as a professional occupation for women.