Katharine C. (Katharine Caroline) Bushnell

Born in Illinois in 1855, Katharine C. Bushnell trained as a physician at a time when few women entered medicine. She served in China as a medical missionary, where she helped establish hospital work in Shanghai before illness forced her return to the United States.

Back home, she became widely known for social reform. She investigated the treatment of women in regulated brothels, worked with the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, and campaigned against trafficking and sexual double standards. Her activism was practical and fearless, grounded in both medical experience and a strong sense of justice.

In her later years, Bushnell turned much of her energy to biblical study. Drawing on Greek and Hebrew, she argued that many traditional readings of the Bible had distorted its view of women, and she presented that case most fully in God's Word to Women. She died in 1946, but her writing continues to be read by people interested in women's history, social reform, and Christian thought.