Miller, Margaret Ross (1870-1955)
Proponent Of Women Leaders
Margaret Ross Miller helped form church women’s organizations in the Philippine Islands, Panama, Costa Rica, Mexico, Argentina and Chile, as well as in California. Her husband was appointed to special work in South America prior to his election as bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1924. In 1921, Mrs. Miller helped women in Chile plan an organization similar to the Woman’s Society of Christian Service, which did not come into being until years later. In 1925, she helped the separate women’s groups in Mexico form a national organization. She also helped organize women’s work in Argentina, schools for Indians in Bolivia and Chile, and an international women’s organization in South America. Involved in literacy programs, she wrote many books, one of which was the 1936 study text, Women Under the Southern Cross. Sixteen years of labor and love, during which she traveled by horseback, boat, train, and foot, were the basis for this comprehensive book on the history of Christian work among women in Latin America. In California, she was president of the Pacific Branch of the Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society. In all her work, Margaret Miller trained other women for leadership.
Taken from They Went Out Not Knowing… An Encyclopedia of One Hundred Women in Mission (New York: Women’s Division of the General Board of Global Ministries, The United Methodist Church, 1986). Used with permission of United Methodist Women.
