Baptist Boys and Girls: Gender Roles in Southern Baptist Children’s Magazines, 1953–1957

Abstract

This paper will analyze the publications for children of Woman’s Missionary Union (WMU), auxiliary to the Southern Baptist Convention, from 1953 to 1957. These include Tell, a monthly magazine for girls, and Ambassador Life, a monthly magazine for boys. The paper will argue that these magazines urged girls to develop social graces while challenging boys to physical activity. In addition, both Ambassador Life and Tell generally encouraged their readers to adopt what editors saw as gender-specific roles, positing distinctive tasks for boys (and men) and for girls (and women). Overall, these emphases reflected conservative Southern Baptist understandings of gender and helped shape the views of a generation (or more) of Southern Baptists.