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The rise and fall of the Student Volunteer Movement
The Great Power Era (1870s-1910s)
Nearly 10% of the total American population had been mobilized as soldiers during the Civil War (2.2 million for the Union and 1.0 million for the Confederates), which actually represented something like 20% of the men. By the end of the war, over 620,000 soldiers were dead or wounded, along with an uncounted number of civilians. The Civil War produced more American deaths than any other war in history (World War II saw by comparison 400,000 dead).
This meant that, in the absence of men, women stepped in to fill many of the roles. Women in both the north and the south had filled clerical jobs that men had left in order to go to war. After the war, women continued to be employed in offices.
The introduction of the typewriter in the 1880s led to more office jobs for women (women’s hands were considered to be better suited to typing than men’s, being smaller and more nimble). By 1880, 40% of the stenographers and typists were women, and by 1900, the percentage had risen to 75%.
The federal bureaucracy found more jobs for women as it grew; by 1900, women occupied one-third of all government jobs. The infant telephone industry decided women were natural switchboard operators as soon as it discovered that men tended to talk back to the customers. Women also made inroads into library work (Collins 2007). More than just employment was to be had, too. The male population in a wide span of ages was so severely reduced that the women were forced to take over businesses, banks and found their own colleges.
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Justin, thank you for a well researched SVM article. Over the past 30 years I have had an enduring interest in this history, as a scholar, practitioner and mobilizer. http://www.jaygary.com/students.shtml
But now I think the student generation following World War I also made good choices regarding the gospel. While Robert Wilder chose fundamentalism, Sherwood Eddy embraced both the gospel and social justice, and rallied the church to work with marginalized urban youth. As 21st century Christian leaders, we must not let this divide between evangelism and social action divide us any longer. Even as evangelicals, both WEA and Lausanne have dealt with this both theologically and practically for 30 years now. There are new paradigms of global engagement emerging. We must not be frozen in the 19th century, but open to our own paradigms becoming more biblical and integral.
Second, whatever calls to come to a new generation, their watchword must deal substantially, in a post-Bosch world, on how the gospel must change both the evangelized and the unevangelized. Jesus linked both the rich man and Lazarus in his parable. We must link our overconsumption with the destitution of the developing world, and consider ways to create sustainable enterprises that are culturally relevant, environmentally appropriate and wealth generating among the bottom of the pyramid. See the work of Stuart Hart in this, his book _Capitalism at the Crossroads_ http://www.stuartlhart.com/frameworks%20and%20t...
I am encouraged by your work from Asia. May God continue to give you strength to sound the trumpet.
–Jay, Program Director, M.A. in Strategic Foresight, http://www.regent.edu/global/msf
Assistant Professor, School of Global Leadership & Entrepreneurship, Regent University
Good article.
Thanks for sharing your work.
I liked reading it.