Women in the Australian Baptist Denomination in Peace and War, 1920–1945

Abstract

Exploring the roles and activities of Australian Baptist women is essential to present a complete history of the Australian Baptist denomination. Many historical narratives do not include women’s work in the denomination despite their numerical dominance. This article provides a brief overview of women’s work in their congregations and the broader denomination from 1920 to 1945. Women’s organisations were important as a vehicle for women’s ministries and fundraising, and they enabled talented individuals to be involved in leading and managing organisations, as well as demonstrating their theological views through speeches.

1. Introduction

When Lily Higlett died in 1943, an obituary by Helen Cousin in the Baptist denomination’s paper, The Australian Baptist, stated that “she has been the leader of the women of our churches in New South Wales.1 Her inspiration has touched every department of our church life” (Cousin 1943). Due to her work for the Baptist denomination, Lily Higlett must have been considered a truly remarkable woman. There were many Australian Baptist women who worked to develop and maintain the Baptist denomination between 1920 and 1945. Yet, in the 21st century, few Baptists would know anything about the work or life of such women.

Australian Baptist women’s work within the denomination is largely ignored or overlooked within the historiography despite many women being active in their Baptist congregations, in Baptist mission work, and in various state and national Baptist women’s organisations. Some of this omission is because women were not ordained into ministry during this period at a time when leadership was often akin to ordination.

This article specifically examines areas of women’s ministries, with an emphasis on how they worked towards establishing peace in the 1920s and 1930s, and their work during World War II. Examples include women’s work in all Australian states, particularly noting the significant work undertaken by Cecelia Downing in Victoria, Florence Benskin and Edith Wilcox in South Australia, and Adelaide Bamford and Lily Higlett in New South Wales (NSW). Largely, the article does not examine men’s views on women’s roles: an analysis of men’s views could be the subject of a complete article. Instead, the article demonstrates how women were able to work in a conservative denomination and were able to fulfill their Baptist evangelical views.

2. Who Were Australian Baptists?

The 1921 Australian Census indicated that nearly 55,000 women considered themselves Baptist, representing just over 2% of women in Australia at that time (Australian Bureau of Statistics 2024). The denomination developed from the 1830s and was slow to grow. The proportion of Australian Baptists of the Australian population was never more than 4% and consisted mainly of Baptist adherents who migrated to Australia from the United Kingdom (UK) (Parker 2005). Indeed, until the mid-20th century, the UK was very important to Australian Baptists, and travel to the “old country” occurred regularly (Farewell to Miss Sharp 1931).

Women made up a greater proportion of Australian Baptists than men. Over half of the foundation members of Australian Baptist congregations were women.2 Within Baptist congregations, women represented around two-thirds of congregations’ membership, and more women attended worship services than men.3 Women were aware of their numerical dominance. In 1925, Florence Benskin wrote:

Baptist women, numbering two-thirds of our congregations, are ready to stand shoulder to shoulder and to help in every possible way the coming of the Kingdom of our Lord.

(Benskin 1925b)

Baptists had four key distinctions that set adherents apart from other Protestant denominations. These were: personal conversion accompanied by adult baptism; the priesthood of all believers; civil liberty, or separation of the church from the state; and religious liberty, or freedom of religion (Bebbington 2018; Manley 2006). Theoretically, women were active and equal participants in the congregation’s activities because of the application of Baptist distinctions: believers’ baptism through full immersion was undertaken by both men and women; the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers meant that all believers were equally close to God, and women did not need a mediator or “third party”—often male—to connect to God; and civil and religious liberty drove the creation of independent Baptist congregations, where all members of congregations made decisions about the congregation’s policies. Practically, equality between men and women did not occur, specifically with respect to the ordination of ministers, which is discussed below.

Australian Baptists held evangelical beliefs, as did UK Baptists. In 1989, historian David Bebbington noted that evangelicalism was characterised by the four marks of conversionism, biblicism, crucicentrism, and activism. While these marks continue to be debated by historians and theologians, they are a useful means of understanding Australian Baptist women’s evangelicalism from 1920 to 1945. Often, these marks can be seen in women’s actions and their written works. As a pertinent example, most evangelical women held the view that converting “unbelievers” to Christianity through spreading the gospel—usually referred to as mission—was an essential task of Christians. Australian Baptist women were involved in various mission activities, including as missionaries and in mission management.

In the latter half of the 19th century, as Baptist numbers grew, colonial Baptist unions were established, as in the UK. The unions were independent, had slightly different theological beliefs, and had different constitutions (Manley 2006). Issues, such as those regarding membership policies and communion practices, caused conflict within and between Australian Baptists in all states and possibly hampered the development of the denomination (Hughes 1937; Prior 1966; Moore 1996; Parker 2005; Manley 2006).

Thus, new Australian Baptist members and congregations replicated worship practices, management structures, and theological views from their congregations in the UK. In addition, Australia was a patriarchal society established through colonial rule (Manley 2006). Australian society went through significant changes regarding the role of women and opportunities for enhanced educational and legal rights at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. Yet, within most Australian Christian denominations until late in the 20th century, women were limited with respect to the roles they could undertake in the denomination. For Baptist women, this meant that they were not ordained as ministers, nor allowed equal participation in management roles with men (Manley 2006).

Australian Baptist women were committed to applying their skills and their time to supporting the denomination. Despite social constraints and different theological viewpoints across Australia, Baptist women were able to work both within their Baptist congregations and the denomination more broadly.

3. Baptist Women’s Work Prior to 1920

Australian Baptist women were always active within the denomination. In line with Baptist beliefs and evangelical activism, women’s activities were accepted and expected within Baptist congregations, where they undertook roles such as deaconesses and Sunday School teachers, as well as roles in fundraising (Wilson 2000).

Baptist women created women’s organisations in their congregations, but also at the colonial/state level. In 1872, Victorian Baptist women established the first colonial women’s group to support the Baptist Missionary Society (BMS) in England. A woman’s organisation supporting evangelism commenced in NSW in 1878, and a woman’s organisation supporting Australian Baptist foreign mission activities formed in South Australia in 1885. Following the Australian Federation in 1901, state women’s organisations were established in Western Australia (1906) and Queensland (1909). By 1920, these organisations had large numbers of members and were relatively influential. The work of women within these organisations provided funding and unpaid labour to the broader denomination for larger projects and home missions.

4. Women and Foreign Mission

Australian Baptist women’s strong commitment to evangelicalism was evident in the work they did in the foreign mission endeavour. From the mid-19th century to the late 20th century, a significant number of evangelical women, particularly in the UK and USA, but also in Australia, worked as foreign missionaries or were involved in the support of foreign mission work. The term “foreign mission”—now considered ethnocentric—was used extensively by Australian Baptists and other Christian denominations to describe work undertaken by Christians spreading the gospel in non-Christian countries. Australian Baptist women represented around 10% of Australian women engaged in foreign mission work (O’Brien 2005).4

Until 1882, Australian Baptist mission work was restricted to financial support provided to the Baptist Missionary Society (BMS) in England. However, from 1882, Australian Baptists funded their own missionaries. Until the mid-20th century, there were more Australian Baptist missionary women appointed than men, and the first 10 Australian Baptist missionaries were women.5 From 1882, they worked in different mission stations within East Bengal, now Bangladesh, which remained the only location of Australian Baptist foreign mission work until 1949. Initially, the Australian Baptist mission work was run on a colonial/state basis, but in 1913, the state mission organisations federated to become the Australian Baptist Foreign Mission (ABFM) (Cupit et al. 2012).

From 1920 to 1945, 70 Baptist women worked as missionary women in the ABFM, compared to 23 men (Cupit et al. 2012). Missionary women undertook all available roles within the foreign missions, and they had significant autonomy and leadership of their work within the ABFM. Several factors allowed this to occur, but the predominant reason was that as there were so few men, inevitably, women were called upon to establish, lead, and preach in the missions (Gooden 1998). A further factor relates to the interplay between race and gender, whereby women were able to lead and manage foreign mission work because the Baptists overseeing the work believed missionary women were more skilled than the local people. Indeed, most missionary women had post-secondary training, including seven women who had completed university degrees, which was a significant number at a time when most women—and men—did not attend university.

From the late 20th century, various academics criticise foreign mission work, largely because of the conscious or subconscious beliefs of missionaries that a Western (Christian) culture was the ideal and that non-Christians convert to a Western form of Christianity. Recent scholarship, including that undertaken by mission historian Dana Robert, examines the multifaceted relationship between mission and Western colonialism (Robert 2009). Robert states that views of Western superiority were held by most Western people at that time, and evidence shows that missionaries were less racist than other Westerners. In addition, on many occasions, foreign missionary women and men advocated for the rights of local people against colonial governments (Robert 2009). Such actions can also be found by Australian Baptist missionary women.6

Due to the importance of women undertaking foreign mission work within the Australian Baptist denomination, significant further research could be undertaken about Baptist women in the mission. However, to date, the subject has received relatively more attention than work undertaken by other women in the Baptist denomination.7 This article acknowledges both the criticisms of foreign missions alongside the significance of the work undertaken by missionary women but does not have the scope to adequately examine the Australian Baptist mission, colonialism, and gender due to the complexity of the issues.8

In addition to undertaking missionary service, Baptist women undertook roles in Australia to support the ABFM: in Board and Executive Committee membership, in the dissemination of missionary information and correspondence, and in fundraising and other activities promoting missionary work. This work is discussed further below.

5. Women in Baptist Congregations

Most Australian Baptist women worked within local congregations. Women offered their services as unpaid labour to sustain Australian Baptist congregations. Women undertaking roles in their congregations often spoke of the fulfillment that they received in doing this work. The congregations relied on these services, particularly in activities that prepared the church building for worship services, such as cleaning, flower arrangements, and preparation of communion. Women found these services meaningful. For example, in 1931, Enid Elphinston wrote: “We give flowers to comfort in sorrow, and how many hearts have been strengthened by the gift of a flower!” (Elphinston 1931). Women undertook spiritual activities, such as Sunday School teaching and providing music or singing in the choir. Often, these were lifelong activities, as in the case of Rose Smith, who taught Sunday School in Newtown Baptist, NSW, for over 50 years (Called home: Mrs Rose Smith 1943). Women undertake broader activities supporting their congregations, such as catering for functions, helping members and other adherents in need of physical support, and fundraising. In 1936, Dr. Frank Hone, then-President of the Baptist Union of South Australia, was reported as saying, “It is men who do the talking, while the women do the work!” (South Australian Baptist Union Annual Assembly 1936).

Much of the work undertaken by women occurred through an organised women’s group and most congregations prior to 1945 had a women’s group. Women in Baptist congregations usually established such groups to assist the congregation through practical and financial support. Meetings were held regularly—often weekly—and included prayers and Bible readings. Women’s groups enabled women to develop connections with other women in the congregation and to support each other, as well as fundraising for activities within and outside the congregation.

Between 1920 and 1945, several women served on diaconates or were appointed to executive positions, especially in new, small, or regional Baptist congregations. From 1924 to 1929, Myra Norman was the first secretary of Pennant Hills Baptist, NSW. In 1929, she advised the membership that she was not accepting nomination for the position again, “feeling that as there are now a number of men members, one of them should fill the office” (More or Less personal 1929). From 1911 to 1926, Edith Dorse served as Secretary of Stroud Baptist, Tasmania, and she remained on the diaconate until at least 1930 (Harris 2013). Thus, in some congregations and under certain conditions, women were elected to executive positions that were usually reserved for men. However, most congregations did not have women on their diaconate or in executive positions.

About 10% of congregations appointed unpaid deaconesses up to 1945.9 The deaconesses’ committees had three shared features. First, deaconesses’ committees met separately with the deacons.10 Deaconesses were involved in activities in the congregation, and they did not formulate policies (the latter task was undertaken by male deacons). Tasks assumed by the deaconesses included aiding women in the process of baptism, interviewing potential new members, visiting those who were unwell in the congregation, and organising cleaning and upkeep of the church building (Deaconesses North Adelaide Baptist 1882–1941; Wilcox 1936).

Second, being a deaconess was considered a privilege, alongside that of deacons.11 In 1926, The Australian Baptist obituary for Mary Watson stated:

The highest office to which a member of the church can be called is that of deacon or deaconess. To this office, Mrs. Watson was called many years ago and has consistently carried out its duties.

(Aberdeen Street Baptist: Memorial service to Mrs. J. Watson 1926)

Finally, the deaconesses’ roles were not emphasised, their ministries were minimized, and the minutes of the meetings were rarely retained (Peterborough Baptist 1980; Helyar 1995). Despite their limitations, deaconesses appear to have known and responded to both the physical and spiritual needs of others in their congregations.

6. Women in Ministerial Leadership

Some Baptist congregations across Australia established paid roles for women to assist with home missions or within congregations. In 1920, Grace Taylor stated that there was “value of a godly woman’s assistance in a pastor’s work” (Dixson 1920). They were paid between one-third and half of the salary of a Baptist minister.12 The women had titles such as “sister” or “deaconess”, and their roles and ministries were extensive, including organising and leading weekday study groups for women, visiting sick people in the congregation, and undertaking evangelistic activities for non-Christians in the local community, such as visiting prisons.13

From the end of the 19th century, Deaconess Orders within Australia were supported within the Anglican, Methodist, and Presbyterian denominations. In the 1920s and 1930s, Baptists in other Australian states discussed the merits of establishing a Deaconess Order. For example, in Victoria, the Baptist women’s state organisation recommended establishing an Order, but, ultimately, the state union did not proceed.14 Likely the impetus for Baptist Deaconess Orders came from both the establishment of other Australian Deaconess Orders and the UK Baptist Deaconess Order (O’Brien 2005; Baptist Women’s Training Sisterhood Committee 1936).

NSW was the only state that established a Baptist Deaconess Order as a framework within which women could work. It was operational for a short period from 1917 to 1925, and, ultimately, only six women were appointed within the Order (Hilton 2024a). A unique feature of the NSW Order was operated and funded by women, so it was independent of the Baptist Union of NSW.15 Possibly, Australian Baptist state denominations were too small to maintain Deaconess Orders. For example, records of meetings from the NSW Order indicate that members were disappointed with the small number of suitable women attracted to the positions. In 1924, the Order asked:

Should any of our people know of a scheme that will mean a larger and greater influence in the women’s share of the Home Mission work, we shall be only too happy to learn of it or accept any suggestions for the more effective working of Home Mission interests in our churches.

(New South Wales: Baptist Deaconesses’ Association 1924)

However, Australian Deaconess Orders and the UK Baptist Order experienced similar issues with respect to struggling to engage and retain suitable women, in part because the salary was low and women were expected to resign if they married. Plus, the role of a deaconess was not clearly defined—tasks ranged from minor maintenance to preaching (O’Brien 2005; Baptist Women’s Training Sisterhood Committee 1936). Instead of using a formal Order, individual congregations engaged deaconesses or sisters where and when required. For example, the Brisbane Tabernacle employed four deaconesses in the period from 1920 to 1945, including Fanny Aldridge, who was appointed in 1944 and served until 1966 (Baptist Heritage Queensland 2009).

Clearly, these Deaconesses were eager to minister or serve in leadership positions in the denomination, yet there were no ordained Baptist women ministers in Australia until 1978 when Rev. Dr. Marita Munro was ordained in Victoria. In the early 20th century, the exclusion of women from Baptist-ordained ministry was assumed, as opposed to a specific exclusion. Most Australian Baptists believed that women and men had different ministry roles, with a key distinction being that women did not lead a congregation, thereby limiting women’s roles to those such as deaconesses and missionaries (Manley 2006; Bebbington 2018).

Only a small number of Christian denominations in Australia ordained women to the ministry before the 1960s, including the Salvation Army, the Unitarian Church, and the Congregational Church. The ordination of women in the Congregational denomination is significant as there are many documented links between women from the Congregational and Baptist denominations (Wilcox 1945). Julia Pitman believes that independent congregations allowed for the ordination of women in the Congregation denomination (Pitman 2016). Australian Baptists shared the principle of independent congregations, and still women were not ordained. In England, women commenced being ordained to Baptist church ministry in the 1920s—50 years before the Australian Baptists. One possible reason for this was that English Baptists had retained the radical beliefs of the Baptist faith and thus created a point of difference between themselves and the Anglican Church of England. In comparison, Australian Baptists were socially conservative and aligned with other Australian denominations, including the Anglican Church. Ordination was not encouraged within the denomination, so a woman who may have privately expressed such a desire was not encouraged to seek ordination.

There is currently no evidence to light of discussions regarding ordination occurring in women’s groups within congregations or in state or national women’s organisations, and no Australian Baptist women sought ordination through official channels.16 Potentially, the lack of documented discussion regarding ordination indicates that women arranged their ministries to fit within boundaries that were accepted within the denomination. Women did not seek ordination for themselves or others if they believed such actions may reduce available opportunities. Elizabeth Flowers concluded that this was the case for women in the United States of America (USA) (Flowers 2012). For example, in the 1940s, Adelaide Bamford was on a preaching roster for a regional congregation in NSW and preached at least once a month, yet when discussions regarding women’s ordination occurred in the early 1960s, she stated that such arrangements should be a “temporary measure” (Bamford 1960). Women in the Australian Baptist denomination were able to minister and lead through work other than formal ordination. The focus on foreign missions, described above, led talented women in the denomination to volunteer for this work rather than seek ordination. A woman could work as a deaconess or within a congregation in other roles. Certainly, there is no evidence that women left the Baptist denomination because the denomination was conservative and they could not be ordained.17

Between 1920 and 1945, a small number of women undertook the role of minister in their congregations. For instance, Emily Smith ministered in Greenslopes Baptist, a new congregation in southern Brisbane, Queensland. Officially, the first minister of the congregation was employed in 1924. However, from 1920 until 1924, Emily Smith was effectively the minister of the Greenslopes Baptist congregation (Young 2020).

In the 1940s, three women undertook ministerial roles in South Australia. They were appointed by the Baptist Union of South Australia, with their salaries being paid by the South Australian Baptist Women’s League (BWL). Margaret Speck’s ministry career commenced in 1940 when she was appointed to work as a “sister” (South Australian Notes: Sister Margaret 1940). She undertook the role of minister at both Hilton and Whyalla Baptist, filling in when the ministerial role was vacant (Notes from The Churches: Baptist 1941). She was described as “an able speaker [with] much experience in church work” (Social notes 1947). She left the work in 1954 when she married. In 1941, Florence Hogan and Myrtle Stribling commenced work in the Mount Cooper Circuit at Port Kenny Baptist, 600 kilometres west of Adelaide. South Australian Baptist Union officials appointed the women reluctantly, as the preference was for a man, “but they went there and made good with self-sacrifice and devotion” (South Australian Notes: Sister F. Hogan 1960). The women conducted weekly worship services in four different locations, officiated at funeral services, and were accredited by the Baptist Union of South Australia to undertake marriages. They described themselves as “acting pastors” (Morris et al. 1943). They successfully continued in this role for 12 years until Myrtle Stribling resigned to marry, and Florence Hogan was asked to return to Adelaide and work in a position in the Baptist West End Mission.

There is evidence of women preaching in all Australian states between 1920 and 1945 (Hilton 2024a). Congregations often welcomed women as preachers on Mother’s Day, the second Sunday in May. For example, on May 13, 1945 in Perth, Western Australia, women preached at five of the fourteen Baptist congregations (Advertising 1945). In addition, most missionary women in the ABFM preached at various congregations when they were on furlough from mission work, although their preaching was often called an “address” or “speech”.18

Unfortunately, few sermons preached by women are extant.19 A small number of sermons delivered by Edith Wilcox in South Australia have been retained. She encouraged the congregation to use their “Character and Opportunities” and work to build a better world. She said: “We don’t start equal in physical or any other endowment… Our ancestry is not our choice, but honesty is. In a word—CHARACTER” (Wilcox 1999). Another woman who preached regularly was Adelaide Bamford in NSW. Her sermons have not been retained, although other published material is extant, including her writings in The Australian Baptist and two books of short messages, which were written as short sermons, titled The Sunlit Road and Hills of Home (Bamford 1945; Bamford 1950). In these published sermons, Adelaide Bamford focused on Christian themes such as praying, the effective use of time, definitions of home, and the importance of undertaking regular family worship.

Another important role for women in Baptist congregations was that of the minister’s wife. It is probable that some women who were interested in ministry work chose to marry a minister so they could undertake roles supporting their husbands’ ministry. Certainly, Melody Maxwell postulates that this occurred in the USA (Maxwell 2018). The minister’s wife had a high status within Baptist congregations: the president of women’s groups was usually the minister’s wife (Jireh Branch Q.B.W. Union 1929–1948). Most ministers’ wives appear to have embraced their role and undertaken tasks such as visiting adherents or chairing women’s groups, and ad hoc preaching.20 Indeed, most congregations would have an expectation that they would work with their husbands. When two Baptist ministers celebrated 50 years in the ministry in 1983, it was written that the ministers’ wives “were ‘ordained’ by God to be their partners [in] Christian service” (Two Pastors celebrate 50 years in the ministry 1983).

7. Women’s Activities in the Broader Australian Baptist Denomination

Several women were writers in the Australian Baptist denomination, which regularly published their work in denominational journals, particularly The Australian Baptist. Adelaide Bamford wrote a regular column for women in The Australian Baptist between 1939 and 1960, using the pen name Keturah. While her early columns contained “homely hints”, later columns were usually an examination of a Christian attribute using a Bible passage. On 13 January, 1942, her column exhibited David Bebbington’s four evangelical distinctions. She encouraged her readers to ensure the Bible “becomes the living word” (biblicism), to confess and “humble ourselves before the cross” (crucicentrism), to “bring others” to Christ (conversionism), and to trust that God will “make the way plain and open” for the work (activism) (Bamford 1942a). Florence Benskin was another regular writer of a denominational paper, the South Australian The Baptist Record, between 1922 and 1926. Her columns were similar to Adelaide Bamford’s format and were also evangelical in nature. For instance, on 15 January, 1925, she wrote that:

If we want to make the Bible our own, we must make a real study of it, we must get our roots deep in, and, as the pages unfold to us, new life will spring to the glory of His name.

(Benskin 1925a)

Other women wrote in denominational papers on a regular or ad hoc basis. For example, in NSW, Susan Davey authored monthly summaries of meetings of the NSW Ladies Zeanan Missionary Society (LZMS) in The Australian Baptist.21 Other women submitted articles, and, while many were based on “women’s issues” such as children and family life, the articles were thoughtful and theological. For instance, Elizabeth Hewison’s 1931 article on “The Building of Character in the Home Life” states:

The secret of growing strong characters in our homes will be that other presence, unseen, but wonderfully read, for is He not the counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace?

(Hewison 1929)

These women’s writing, including works by Baptist missionary women in the Baptist denomination, meant that the activities and views of women were available to all Australian Baptists.

Women organised state women’s organisations to support home and foreign missions. Such organisations were essential to the denomination in that they provided significant unpaid labour, for instance, in catering for denomination events, as well as significant financial support.

As noted above, prior to 1920, many state-based women’s organisations had commenced operation and had gained influence in the denomination. Usually, a foreign mission state organisation was established before an organisation supported the home mission. This was possibly because women could undertake home missions within their congregations and because there was an intense interest in foreign missions. The interest in foreign missions was, in itself, influenced by women’s actions. The Victorian Baptist Women’s Missionary Union (BWMU) aimed to ensure the “promotion of missionary zeal in the Churches” (Victorian Baptist Women’s Fellowship Missionary Committee 1968). Australian Baptist women were committed to the notion that women needed to undertake foreign mission work for other women, known as “women’s work for women”, and this was reflected in reasons for establishing women’s mission organisations. As an example, in 1884, the LZMS stated that there was a:

Great necessity for increased interest, and more direct effort on behalf of the women of India in a social, as well as a religious, point of view, which work could only be effected by woman herself. The deep need for the establishment of such a society was felt by all present.22

Women in mission organisations in the period from 1920 to 1945 continued to believe that women’s work for women remained essential. In a 1920 meeting of the LZMS, Elizabeth Dovey was “assuring [missionary candidates] of our continued interest in their progress, and our deep sympathy with them in their chosen work for the Master” (Zenana Missionary Society 1920).

Arguably, Baptist women’s organisations had not reached their zenith until the 1920s and 1930s. At that time, all Baptist women around Australia were represented by well-organised women’s state organisations within the growing denomination. Their work was expansive and driven by state needs, such as the NSW deaconess work described above, the infrastructure provided by South Australian women in the Baptist Women’s League, and the support of the Baptist school, Carey Grammar School, by Victorian women (Wilcox 1945; Victorian Baptist Women’s Association 1945). Obviously, the organisations had areas in which they provided similar support—all women’s state organisations catered at state Baptist union meetings. The Baptist women’s state organisations were increasingly communicating and collaborating with each other, and Baptist women established two national organisations: in 1929, the Federal Senior Girls’ Missionary Union (SGMU); and in 1935, the Australian Baptist Women’s Board (ABWB).

From 1922, women in Baptist congregations created groups called Senior Girls’ Missionary Branches, which were part of a state SGMU. The SGMU was a mechanism for younger women to become involved in foreign and home missions, although usually the focus was the work of the ABFM. Alice Barber and Margaret Findlay, Baptist missionary women from Victoria, were the instigators of the SGMU, which was modelled on a similar structure in the Australian Presbyterian Church (Victorian Notes 1922). The SGMU commenced in Victoria and was taken up by Queensland (1923), South Australia (1923), and NSW (1926). The SGMU was not established in Tasmania and Western Australia until 1945 and 1947, respectively, in part because the denomination was small. The SGMU was successful in its aim of galvanising young women to support missions. By the end of 1922, the Victorian SGMU was fully funding Ruby Brindley’s work in the ABFM, and by the end of 1930, the NSW SGMU was funding five missionary women.23

Across states, the SGMU had consistent aims and activities, undertaking fundraising events, conducting annual camps, and encouraging interest in missions. It was inevitable that members of the SGMU volunteered for mission service, and, consequently, SGMUs supported these women.24 The state SGMUs shared advice and study resources between states, and a federated SGMU was inevitable. In 1929, the Baptist Union of Australia approved the federated SGMU (Earnest work: Girls’ missionary union 1929). The federated SGMU was simply a mechanism to enable state SGMUs to meet annually, but it was a national platform for young women’s activities in supporting missions, and for that reason, it was significant.

In 1935, the ABWB was established following numerous discussions among Baptist women across Australia through the early 1930s. Victorian woman Cecilia Downing led the work to establish a national organisation representing Australian Baptist women (Catt 1932; Devonport Baptist Church 1933; Men have failed: Women must save the country 1935). She wanted Australian Baptist women to collaborate nationally so they could be represented among peak bodies seeking to achieve world peace.25 Cecilia Downing, along with other Baptist women such as Elizabeth Rees, believed that promoting peace could assist the country recover from the 1930s economic depression (Rees 1937). A further benefit of a national organisation was that it could represent Australian Baptist women in meetings of Baptists in the Asia–Pacific region and in the women’s committee of the Baptist World Alliance (Downing 1935).

The 1935 Australian Baptist Assembly amended the constitution of the Baptist Union of Australia to include the ABWB, with Cecilia Downing appointed as its first president (Ham 1985). The ABWB aimed primarily:

To inspire and encourage women’s work in the churches of the denomination, and, by co-ordinating existing work, to bind together Baptist women in a fellowship of prayer and service for the Kingdom of God in Australia and throughout the world.

(Downing 1935)

Ultimately, the ABWB was not significant, in part because women continued to focus on state women’s organisations, which had more power and influence. Despite this, the ABWB operated until the end of the 20th century and enabled women to have “a voice in the Baptist Union of Australia” (Ham 1985 p. 2). In addition, as Cecilia Downing had hoped, the organisation allowed Baptist women to be part of groups outside the denomination. For example, the ABWB was a member of the committee that organised Pan-Pacific Women’s Conferences (Fourth Pan-Pacific Women’s Conference 1936).

The state-based and national women’s organisations were important to the women as a vehicle through which they could fulfil their desire to be active in their faith. They could unite with other Baptist women, and they could develop and use skills in management and leadership. Lily Higlett is presented as an example of a Baptist woman who was actively involved in several different groups within the Baptist denomination, including women’s groups in the congregations she attended, the NSW Baptist Women’s Home Mission Auxiliary, and the NSW LZMS, of which she was the president between 1931 and 1943. She visited and spoke to the women’s committees of many Baptist congregations in NSW.26 Lily Higlett was intelligent and articulate, but she does not appear to have any published work. However, in 2019, one of her notebooks was deposited in the NSW Baptist Archives. The notebook contains numerous speeches and prayers for meetings of the LZMS between 1938 and 1943, showing evidence of her Baptist and Evangelical beliefs, and highlighting her commitment to foreign missions (Higlett 1939–1943). At the July 1942 meeting of the LZMS, she stated:

It is our privilege at home to provide the means for the carrying on [of the] difficult task [of foreign mission], and to pray more earnestly than ever before that whatever else falters, the Christian Missionary Work will go on.27

Lily Higlett’s active faith is an enduring feature of her notebook, with her words showing how she was committed to promoting and ensuring ongoing funding for the Baptist foreign mission.

In addition to women’s organisations, some women were members of state and national Baptist organisations, especially mission organisations. Baptist women in the UK and North America created women’s mission organisations, which directly engaged missionary women, although by 1920, most of these organisations had been, or were being, subsumed into the larger mission organisations. (Kemp 1927; Robert 1996). In Australia, Protestant denominations established women’s organisations to support missionary women within the respective denominational mission organisations. Thus, Methodist women instituted a Women’s Missionary Auxiliary, the Congregational denomination had a Federated Women’s Guild with state auxiliary committees, Presbyterian women established state Presbyterian Women’s Missionary Associations, and Anglican women established a Women’s Auxiliary Board (Mitchell 1985; Godden 1997). Due to the relatively small number of Australian missionary women compared to the UK and North America, distinct Australian denominational women’s mission organisations would not have been viable. Arguably, the women’s organisations became a fundraising mechanism for the denominational mission organisations, and women had limited opportunities in managing general mission activity (Mitchell 1985).

The small Australian Baptist denomination had, from its beginnings, not only a feminised foreign mission workforce but constituted women’s involvement in mission management: a feature that was not part of other denominations’ mission organisations. Most Baptist state mission committees had either informal or formal requirements that women were members, and this was not a condition stated for other committees within the denomination, nor for women in other Australian denominations.28

Most significantly, Baptist women were members of the denomination’s mission board, the ABFM Board. Indeed, it was a requirement of the Board’s constitution that at least two members were women. In addition, from 1920 to 1945, one-third of the attendees of annual meetings of the ABFM were women, and all attendees had full voting rights.29 The women on the Board had an impact on decisions taken, especially regarding the engagement of prospective mission women, whose initial interviews were regularly undertaken by a woman on the Board.30 Presumably, the large number of women attending the annual meetings of the ABFM also impacted decisions with respect to mission policy and funding arrangements.

8. A Time of Peace (1920 to 1939) and a Time of War (1939 to 1945)

Inevitably, Baptist women’s roles changed over the period from 1920 to 1945, and this was evident in their activities between the two world wars (1920 to 1939), compared to those undertaken during World War II (1939 to 1945).

While it is true that most Baptists supported the reasons for war, many Australian Baptist women spoke and wrote about the importance of peace in the interwar period, particularly in the 1930s (Manley 2006). In addition, the connection between the ABW and the issue of peace was strong, as described above. Baptist women believed that “peace should prevail”.31

The Second World War was devastating for many Australian Baptist women. Some women suffered the loss of close family members and friends.32 Women were prepared to increase their workload to assist their congregation and the denomination more broadly. When meetings were held during the war, women put in extra effort to ensure the smooth running of events, such as ensuring that necessary food was available (New South Wales notes 1945). Many women undertook tasks where there were not sufficient numbers of men available.33 Some women were appointed to executive positions.34 As an example, from 1939 to 1944, Halley Nicholls was elected deaconess and treasurer at Redland Bay Baptist, Queensland.35 Potentially, the ministerial roles undertaken by Margaret Speck, Florence Hogan, and Myrtle Stribling described above were possible because of the lack of suitable men during the war. Indeed, in their 1942 annual report, the Grange Baptist Ladies’ Guild in South Australia noted:

Sister Margaret Sinclair told us about her work as a deaconess and made us realize how much we womenfolk are needed to attend to the pastoral work of the churches as so many of the menfolk are called up for military service.

(Grange Baptist Ladies’ Guild 1942)

Women regularly referenced the war in their speeches and written work. Edith Wilcox used her 1941 sermon on the story of Noah to remind her listeners that, despite the war, Christians needed to be active in society to work towards peace:

The deluge of war that threatens to destroy the world today has not been sent by God. It is the outcome of the same lack of mental energy, sincerity, and co-operation that turned the flood into a disaster and tragedy… all involved in it together.

(Wilcox 1999)

Likewise, on 3 March, 1942, Adelaide Bamford based her column on John 14:13 “And whatsoever ye shall ask in MY NAME that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son”. She stated that she had “prayed and prayed that wars should cease” (Bamford 1942b). On 20 July, 1943, Adelaide Bamford commented that the German nation was “flee[ing] from God.” She wrote: “Any individual or nation that thinks God may be evaded and forgotten has forgotten that God is knowledge, all-seeing and all-searching” (Bamford 1943). Missionary women used letters and published articles to discuss the impact of war on their work. In 1942, Effie Baldwin wrote that “war talk is on everyone’s lips” (Baldwin 1942).

9. Work Outside the Baptist Denomination

Between 1920 and 1945, Baptist women worked in various organisations and activities outside the Baptist denomination, where they were able to exert significant power in large women’s organisations. While this article is focused on work in the denomination, it is useful to briefly consider other organisations and the women who worked in them. The evidence appears to indicate that very few Baptist women volunteered for work in non-Christian organisations (Hilton 2024a). Possibly, Baptist women were involved but are not documented, either because within the denomination women’s achievements in non-Christian organisations were not recognised, or because there was no connection to the Baptist denomination noted in the organisation.36 Potentially, the importance of Baptist distinctions and a focus on Baptist foreign missions did not facilitate widespread collaboration with other Protestant women, and Baptist women’s state and national organisations provided adequate opportunities for service along denominational lines.

Yet, some women’s involvement in non-denominational organisations was inevitable due to the small size of the denomination. The work was limited to social welfare and social reform organisations, particularly the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) and city mission organisations. Between 1931 and 1939, Victorian Baptist woman Elizabeth Rees was the editor of The White Ribbon Signal, the journal of the WCTU, and Cecilia Downing was involved with other non-denominational organisations. This work may not have strengthened the Australian Baptist denomination, but, arguably, it equipped them to be more effective within the Baptist denomination. Certainly, both Elizabeth Rees and Cecilia Downing were committed and hardworking members of their respective congregations and the broader Baptist denomination (Wilkin 1939; Smart 1996).

Australian Baptist women also worked as missionary women for organisations outside the Australian Baptist denomination. As noted above, from 1920 to 1945, 70 women worked for the ABFM, while nearly twice that number of Baptist women worked for home or foreign mission organisations other than the ABFM (Hilton 2024a). While their work was not as visible in the denomination, many retained links with their congregations and spoke in various Baptist forums about their work.37

A small number of Australian Baptist women published books outside the denomination, such as Winifred Embery, who wrote of her experiences in the China Inland Mission; and Isabel Stafford, who published books of short sermons (Embery 1945; Stafford 1942). Certainly, Australian Baptists engaged in these writings.38

10. Conclusions

This paper has demonstrated why Australian Baptists should acknowledge the vital roles and ministries that women undertook between 1920 and 1945 within the denomination. Women’s achievements have been forgotten in the history of the denomination when, clearly, women were influential, and their roles were essential. Women undertook significant leadership roles in foreign missions, in management, preaching, and other ministry roles within congregations, and in denominational affairs, where state-based women’s organisations guided large Baptist social welfare projects. Women demonstrated the central tenets of their Baptist evangelical faith, with its belief in the priesthood of all believers and a desire for activism and mission.

In 1943, following the death of Lily Higlett, the NSW Women’ Home Mission Auxiliary was addressed by Adelaide Bamford, the then-president, who said that: “If [Lily Higlett] was present, she would say to us, ‘Carry on! Be fully surrendered and follow Christ.’” Arguably Lily Higlett—and Adelaide Bamford, and the many other women involved in denominational activities between 1920 and 1945—were role models for later generations of Australian Baptist women, the women who continued to “Carry on!” and work in the Australian Baptist denomination and broader Australian society in the latter half of the 20th century through Baptist organisations that provided mission, aged care, and health services.

Adelaide Bamford’s statement is just as relevant for Baptist women in the 21st century: continue being active participants in the denomination; be role models for other women; and write and preach theological insights. May they “Carry on!”