In the early 1900s, when large numbers of American women missionaries began coming to China, marriage was nearly universal among Chinese women. But together, American and Chinese women fashioned a new world that offered the latter the possibility of a career and an alternative to married life. Although American female missionaries were supposed to be priming their Chinese charges for a life of marital bliss with a Christian husband, the message became muddled because so many of the American women, like Howe, remained single themselves.
