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Intro Katharine Bushnell (born Sophia Caroline Bushnell in Evanston, Illinois) (February 5, 1855 - January 26, 1946) was a medical doctor, Christian writer, feminist, Bible scholar, and social activist. Her lifelong quest was for biblical affirmation of the integrity and equality of women, and she published God's Word to Women as a retranslation of the Bible. As a missionary and a doctor, Bushnell worked to reform conditions of human degradation in North America, Europe, and Asia. She was recognized as a forceful and even charismatic speaker. *

• is this wording biased or meant to portray her in a certain light?

I think as long as you cite a source that asserts that she was 'forceful' and 'charismatic' it all comes across as very academic and factual

Contents • Early Life and Education • Early Career o China o United States • WCTU • Wisconsin • Global Mission Work o India • The Queen's Daughters in India • Heathen Slaves, Christian Rulers • God's Word to Women • something about her late life and death? o Birth Control o "Second-Wave" Feminism o Death

Early Life and Education Born February 5, 1856, in Evanston, Illinois, or “the great Methodist mecca of the northwest,” Bushnell’s roots in Christianity were well established from the beginning. She grew up in the midst of a religious transition; Methodists strived to be faithful in every area of their lives while simultaneously craving popular success (CITE: Is this a part of the doctrine of the denomination or a common conception?). With this transition came a shift in focus from the individual to the community as a whole, a change in philosophy which ultimately affected Bushnell's life path. Bushnell showed the desire to further her education from an early age and attended Women's Northwestern College--now known as Northwestern University--from 1873-1874. Here, she studied under Dean Francis Willard, who inspired Bushnell to pursue a career in social justice. After Northwestern, Bushnell found another mentor in Dr. James Stewart Jewell. The catalyst behind her interest in medicine, Dr. Jewell convinced Bushnell to (REMOVE) attend study medicine at Chicago Women's Medical College in the late 1870s. A driven and intelligent student, she succeeded in graduating (graduated) three years earlier than (ahead of) her peers. After obtaining her undergraduate and graduate degrees, Bushnell initially planned on entering postgraduate study but was persuaded by her home church to go to China as a medical missionary in 1879.

Early Career China Bushnell served as a medical doctor in Kiukiang, China from 1879-1882. Upon arrival, her original plan was to postpone setting up her practice and to get her affairs in order first. However, she was soon overwhelmed with visitors seeking medical attention and, finding that she could not refuse their entreaties, treated hundreds of patients. Bushnell served as a medical doctor in Kiukiang, China from 1879-1882. Upon arrival, her original plan was to postpone setting up her practice and to get her affairs in order first and learn the native tongue. However, she was quickly overwhelmed with visitors seeking medical attention and, finding that she could not refuse their entreaties, treated hundreds of patients. (ACCIDENTAL REPEAT) In response to her friend's thriving practice, Dr. Ella Gilchrist came out to China to assist Bushnell, but the hot summers proved to be intolerable. Both women became injured or sick within the same period of time (The wording is awkward. I'd say: In YEAR, _______ became ill/injured and soon after _______ was injury/illness) and they were forced to leave China for home (I'd say either "return home" or "leave China").

Bushnell was quite discouraged by this mission cut short, feeling that "her whole life had been a failure." (CITE) Yet it was in China that she first became inspired to study Biblical translations. Brushing aside Chinese traditional medicines, Bushnell nevertheless examined Chinese culture more closely than missionaries who had gone before her. She noticed with indignation that the Chinese Bible changed Paul's fellows from women to men, and after that vowed to devote a portion of her life solely to "a meticulous examination of male bias that had corrupted the English text." (CITE)While it is unproven, many sources claim that Bushnell established a pediatric hospital in China when she returned over a decade later (CITE the sources that make this claim).

America Upon Bushnell and Gilchrist's return to America from China (I'd say one or the other: either "to America" or "from China"), both women were looking for a cause that they could stand behind. After unhappiness (disappointment) with their recently established American medical practice, the pair joined the Women's Christian Temperance Union, or the WCTU, and Bushnell returned to her former mentor Willard. "The largest women's organization of its time," the WCTU championed the causes of families and wives and campaigned to outlaw alcohol, believed to be the root of evil. This reform movement coexisted with the social purity movement, (Should this be capitalized?) which sought to level the playing field of men and women by raising men's (moral) standards rather than lowering women's. Bushnell authored The Woman Condemned, a booklet in which she claimed that “the myth of female virtue only exacerbated the hostile legal environment;" rather than protecting women, the feminization of virtue harmed them. She accused men who called themselves godly yet did not hold themselves to biblical standards of behavior.

She attracted the most attention for her Wisconsin Crusade in 1888 against the "white slave trade." Bushnell ignored regional authorities who insisted that it was nonexistent and investigated herself, drawing the conclusion that prostitution in Wisconsin was exploitative and forced. After she succeeded in exposing the prostitution system as unjust, many attempts were made to slander her and take her words out of context (CITE). In response, Bushnell ordered all of her followers to believe only what she herself published.

Global Mission Work Frustrated by her newfound notoriety and convinced that her status as somewhat of a celebrity distracted people from reform, Bushnell became a global missionary. For guidance, she wrote to Josephine Butler, a more experienced reformer than herself. Butler encouraged her to go to India, and in 1891 Bushnell brought her friend Elizabeth Andrew along with her. Unlike Bushnell, Andrew “struggled to shed her prejudice against ‘fallen women’” and for a time had difficulty in interacting with prostitutes the pair encountered (cite). From 1891-1893, the two conducted the Indian investigations into prostitution within British camps in colonial India.

At the time of Bushnell and Andrew’s visit in the early 1890s, there were around 100 military cantonments, or permanent military camps, in India under the control and ownership of Great Britain. With India having the greatest British military presence at about 1000 soldiers per regiment, leaders became worried about the potential outburst of the soldiers due to the lack of a sexual outlet (CITE). When the rate of venereal, or sexually transmitted, diseases continued to rise alarmingly among the men stationed in India, the British government realized that it was ineffective to merely turn the other way when military men consorted with sex workers, especially when they were paying the soldiers and covering the costs of their consistent transfers and travel expenses. Thus, the Contagious Diseases Acts were instituted in 1864. Women suspected of being prostitutes or carrying venereal diseases could be arrested and sent to lock hospitals to suffer a series of traumatic experiences described by Bushnell and Andrews as follows:

“To these Lock Hospitals the women were obliged to go periodically (generally once a week for an indecent examination, to see whether every part of the body was free from any trace of diseases likely to spread from them to the soldiers, as the result of immoral relations. The compulsory examination is in itself a surgical rape. When a woman was found diseased, she was detained in the hospital until cured; when found healthy she was given a ticket of license to practise fornication and was returned to the chakla for that purpose.” (QDII)

The concern was with the potential contamination of British troops rather than the potential spread of foreign diseases among the native population, a point which Bushnell and Andrews emphasize (CITE). The pair published The Queen’s Daughters in India, a comprehensive account of their travels throughout India, in 1899 . The inspiration for the title came from the missionaries' belief that “the Queen herself must not approve of the measures, ‘for she has daughters of her own; and she cares for her daughters in India also.'" (CITE) The report consists of the two reformers' descriptions of the harrowing events which took place and their seemingly miraculous entrance into the cantonments. Since the commanding officer of a cantonment has the authority to remove anyone from the garrison at any time for any reason, the women had to step carefully and be sure not to raise suspicion. Furthermore, while they never explicitly lied about their intentions in visiting, they also never explicitly stated their purpose, allowing the officers and the women in charge of running the brothels—the mahaldarnis—to assume that they were there for an evangelical or medical purpose rather than investigative. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Raerose (talk • contribs) 22:39, 28 November 2018 (UTC)