Gender and Religion on the Mission Station: Roxie Reeve and the Friends African Mission
Author(s)
Rogers, Thomas S.
Abstract
Chronicles the personal and professional successes and failures of Quaker fieldworker Roxie Reeve during her 13-year career in Kenya in the years 1913-26, focusing on her efforts to establish an orphanage and boarding school for African girls. A devout Christian, evangelist, and feminist, Reeve struggled with mission ideology that placed women in a secondary role in terms of their educational needs beyond the acquisition of domestic skills. While the Friends Africa Industrial Mission (FAIM) urged missionaries to set up boys’ schools, Reeve believed that the education of women would enhance the overall survival rate of children and aid husbands in raising the family’s standard of living. Although Africans, especially men, greeted Reeve’s efforts to educate women with skepticism and the FAIM board voiced its disapproval of her work, Reeve devoted her full-time attention to rescuing children and establishing up a boarding-school curriculum that included Christian and secular studies for girls.
