ABSTRACT
The home organisation in which women were deeply involved was the support base for the work of the Church Missionary Society (CMS) overseas, but the involvement of women in overseas work was another matter. Recruiting women as missionaries remained elusive in the CMS and the gendered organisation remained similar to other public institutions. The Society was proud of its presidents and committee members and their aristocratic, clerical or military ranking, of 'reat symbolic value to the middle-class elite'. Increasingly the administration looked to officials who had served overseas to fill committee positions, enhancing relations between the Society, new colonial territories in the East and the Establishment. A feminist analysis portrays these and similar actions in terms of masculinities. There was never a consensus of views as this suggests, and there were various strands of anti-imperialism in Victorian politics. This included many of the early female recruits for Uganda.
