Australian Baptist women: 1882–1945: “Writing with their lives”

This dissertation examines the roles, contributions, and identities of Australian Baptist women from 1882 to 1945. It takes account both of women’s involvement in Baptist organisations and their work in other non-denominational organisations. The dissertation uses narrative history to garner evidence to support the conclusions reached.

Although Baptist women have comprised more than half the membership of the Australian denomination, women historically have been largely excluded from Baptist historiography. While Baptists sometimes acknowledged the influence and impact of women within the denomination, there are many instances of their work being overlooked or downplayed, even where there is extensive documentation of their roles and contributions. This is particularly evident in foreign mission and in the work undertaken by state and national Baptist women’s organisations. Again, Baptist historiography has tended to inadequately acknowledge and incorporate women’s perspectives and writings, particularly minutes of state and national women’s organisations, as examples or evidence of their contribution to building and maintaining the denomination in Australia. Yet Baptist women in Australia were often markedly committed to work designed to support and extend the Kingdom of God. Their beliefs impacted the work they chose to do.

Chapter 1 states why the work and impact of women in the Australian Baptist denomination are worthy of further examination and outlines the available sources. Chapter 2 highlights how women worked within their congregations. Chapter 3 examines the importance of foreign mission to the Baptist denomination and demonstrates how women were a significant part of foreign mission activity. Chapter 4 reveals the contribution of women through state and national Baptist women’s organisations. Chapter 5 addresses the vexed issue of women’s ordination and analyses women’s evangelistic work, including preaching, and religious writings. Chapter 6 examines women’s involvement in social welfare and reform, much of which took place outside the denomination. Chapter 7 considers women’s roles within family structures and assesses the role of single women. The dissertation concludes that Australian Baptist women made significant contributions to the denomination and to Australian religious life.

The dissertation takes some account of differences among the states and over the sixty-eight-year period, although it is restricted in scope and ambition by the availability of the relevant sources. It is not primarily concerned with questions of causation, but instead seeks to organise and interpret evidence of what Baptist women did. In doing so it provides evidence suggesting that the history of Baptist women in Australia needs significant reinterpretation and indicates areas where there is a need for further research.