In the late nineteenth century, the need for women physicians in missionary hospitals in Canton, China, led to expanded opportunities for both Western and Chinese women. The presence of Western women as medical missionaries in China was made possible by certain changes within the Western missionary movement. Beginning in the 1870s, increasingly to women’s changing roles at home and to increasing numbers of single professional missionary women abroad.
Although the idea of employing a woman physician was a daring one for most Western missionaries in China, the advantages of a well-trained Western woman physician could not be ignored by Canton mission hospital administrators. A woman physician could attend women patients without offending any of the accepted conventions of female modesty. access to professional responsibilities far beyond those available to them at home.
These developments also led to the attainment of valuable training and status by a significant number of Chinese women. The presence of women physicians in Canton mission hospitals led many Chinese women to avail themselves of Western medicine who might otherwise have failed to do so because of their culture’s emphasis on go out on their own into private practice, freeing themselves of dependence upon the mission community.
The most important result of these opportunities was the establishment of clear evidence of women’s abilities and strengths, clear reasons for affording women expanded opportunities, and clear role and responsibilities might be exercised.
What this question is testing
Topic
The author is telling the story of how a missionary need in 19th-century China — for women doctors — opened up real careers for women on both sides of the world.
Framework
Highlight Noteworthy. The author isn't arguing against an opponent; they're tracing a chain of consequences.
Main Point
Here's the simpler version: Chinese cultural rules about female modesty meant women patients didn't want to see male doctors, which created demand for women physicians at mission hospitals in Canton. That demand made the missionary movement send single Western women abroad as doctors — opening careers they couldn't have at home — and trained Chinese women in Western medicine, giving them an independent income they couldn't earn otherwise. Everyone ended up with more opportunity than they'd had before.
P1: How single Western women got sent abroad
Women's mission societies sprang up in the 1870s and raised real money. Male-controlled mission boards initially didn't want to send single women, but they couldn't ignore the funding, so they relented.
P2: Why women physicians were welcome in Canton
Hospital administrators in Canton liked having a Western woman doctor because she could treat women patients without violating modesty rules. Some of those women even founded women's hospitals — a level of professional responsibility they couldn't have gotten back home.
P3: Opportunities flowed to Chinese women too
Because Chinese women patients now had options, more of them used Western medicine. To meet that demand, more Chinese women trained as doctors. That gave them an income — rare for women in that society — and eventually let them go into private practice.
Reading along? Open the full official question in LawHub — we show a fragment here and keep the reasoning in our own words.