Helen Barrett Montgomery's life work may be described under four headings: church, social reforms to benefit women, Bible translation, and missions. She has been described by the scholar Kendal Mobley as a "domestic feminist": While she supported women's suffrage and believed women had rights as citizens to share political power, she emphasized the value to society of women's moral influence. She did not question the validity of the idea of separate spheres for men and women. Instead, she argued that the limits of woman's sphere were too narrow, and in her theory and practice she conceptualized a woman's sphere that was in fact limitless. Like many other Progressives, she believed that the moral influence of True Womanhood and the values of the Victorian home ought to be extended throughout the state and the society. As president of the Women's
American Baptist Foreign Mission Society, she had given their gift of more than to the NBC. She was elected after having demonstrated her successful fundraising. During her year as president of the NBC, Montgomery spent considerable time in trying to prepare the churches for a new "statement of faith." She worked to prevent the Convention from being taken over by fundamentalists and requiring an official confession. Her correspondence during this period showed that she was motivated by her "defense of the cherished Baptist principle of liberty." She strongly believed that women had an active role to play in the church and society.
Social reforms to benefit women Montgomery worked on social reforms in the United States, especially those to benefit women. In 1893, she joined with
Susan B. Anthony, the activist for civil rights who was nearly 40 years older, in forming a new chapter of the
Women's Educational and Industrial Union (WEIU) in Rochester. Montgomery served as president from 1893-1911, which "enabled her to exert broad influence in the city's social and political affairs." She and Anthony worked together for more than a decade on women's issues in Rochester. Following the example of chapters in Buffalo and Boston, the WEIU of Rochester served poor women and children in the city, which was attracting many Southern and Eastern European rural
immigrants for its industrial jobs. The WEIU also founded a legal aid office, set up public playgrounds, established a "Noon Rest" house where working girls could eat unmolested, and opened stations for mothers to obtain safe milk, which later developed as public health clinics. It developed as one of the most important Progressive institutions in the city. Montgomery's translation was notable for her practice of inserting chapter and section titles (as seen in photo), a pioneering feature now commonly used in Bibles in many languages. She included interpretations supporting enlarged roles for women in the church, which was influenced by her reading the works of
Katharine Bushnell, a Methodist missionary. (Bushnell's work was rediscovered by theologians in 1975.) Montgomery had reviewed an edition of Bushnell's collection ''God's Word for Women'' in 1924, but likely first came across the work when it was published in 1919. Montgomery: "It is fitting that a woman should pray to God with her head unveiled." NASB: "Is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered?" KJV: "Is it comely that a woman pray unto God uncovered?"
Christian missions Montgomery supported missions by a variety of activities: her national speaking tour (1910–1911) raised $1 million for the mission fund (worth $23.7 million in 2010). Much of the money was used to establish colleges for women in China. She wrote books to publicize the missions. Her book,
Western Women in Eastern Lands (1910), studied the role of women missionaries and women's mission boards overseas. This was a time of extensive Christian missionary activity in East Asia, especially China. In 1913, at the request of the National Federation of Women's Boards of Foreign Missions, Montgomery traveled extensively in East Asia to study conditions of the ecumenical missions and women. Her work, ''The King's Highway'' (1915), sold 160,000 copies. She also served as president of the Women's
American Baptist Foreign Mission Society (1914–1924). In this capacity, in 1921 she provided a "
Jubilee" gift to the Northern Baptist Convention of more than $450,000, which the women's Foreign Mission Society had raised. Montgomery served as president of the National Federation (1917–1918). She also helped found the World Wide Guild, an organization that encouraged young women to become involved in missions. Not limiting her audience to adults, Montgomery worked as associate editor of
Everyland, a magazine for children that reported on international missions. ==Legacy and honors==