Sunday School Teaching: A Women' s Enterprise. A Case Study from the Canadian Methodist, Presbyterian and United Church Tradition, 1919-1939

Abstract

The Sunday schools are valuable to our understanding of social history, especially women's history. As Sunday school teachers, married women had volunteer opportunities to follow their vocations in a society which discouraged themfrom working outside of the home. This paper describes women's places in the Canadian Methodist, Presbyterian and United Church Sunday school networks during the early twentieth century and analyzes their contributions to the teacher training programme promoted by officiais. It also demonstrates how the new theology shaping the Sunday schools reinforced women's roles as nurturers of children while investing them with significant roles in the church.