The World Student Christian Federation, 1895-1925

Motivated by a desire for meaningful work and a life of adventure, women college graduates in North America and Western Europe became student secretaries for the World Student Christian Federation (WSCF). In their role as student secretaries, women worked to create student movements where none had existed, to support fledgling movements, and to embed themselves in movements that already existed. Women thus played an important role in the first decades of the WSCF, when the organization was involved with affiliating national Christian student groups across the globe.

Women secretaries extended to students around the world the fellowship and hospitality they had discovered during their times in higher education. The simple fellowship led to creative programs of self-help, refugee relief, and small-group work that formed the basis for outreach in the post-World War I era.

As the Federation adapted to a changing student culture, the movement itself became more ecumenical and focused on social issues. The resilience of the Federation can be attributed in large measure to the work of women secretaries in the field who created networks and friendships that persisted during peace and war. The presence of student organizations, such as the WSCF and others, on university campuses today can be traced to the work of women secretaries in the early decades of the WSCF. This book explores some of their stories.


""In this fine book Selles deals with an important dimension of Christian internationalism in the early twentieth century: the work of women secretaries in the WSCF. Beginning with a traditional evangelistic purpose, the secretaries adapted sensitively to national and international challenges, their focus after World War I increasingly on social issues. A labor of love as well as intellect, Selles's monograph is a salutary reminder of how much of today's secular internationalism has its roots in national student Christian movements and the ecumenical WSCF.""
--Ruth Compton Brouwer
Professor of History Emerita
King's University College at The University of Western Ontario


Johanna Selles is Associate Professor at Emmanuel College of Victoria University in the University of Toronto. She is the author of Methodists & Women's Education in Ontario, 1836-1925.