FIRST CHOICE: MISSION: THE MARYKNOLL SISTERS, 1912 - 1975

The Maryknoll Sisters, founded in 1912, were the first group of women religious in the United States devoted exclusively to transcultural mission. Six Sisters were sent to China in 1921. Since that first deployment the Sisters have worked in Asia, the Pacific Islands, Latin America and Africa, in numbers representing about fifty-five percent of their active personnel. In the mid-sixties their membership peaked at 1,650 women. During the next decade, the impact of Vatican II, the beginning of an aging group within the community and the decline from large post-war numbers of applicants, accounted for the first significant drop in membership. By 1975 the Maryknoll Sisters numbered 1,000, a level which has been sustained through 1982.; A sociological analysis of personnel deployment was done from the dual perspective of community administrators and of individual members. Documents from official Congregational meetings (Chapters and Assemblies) were studied to find indications of internal personnel policies. Concurrently a questionnaire was sent to every fourth member of the Congregation yielding a ninety percent return.; Data from the two hundred and four respondents was processed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). An additional one hundred interviews were conducted and a sub-group of former Regional and Congregational administrators were queried regarding their experience with personnel deployment.; Scant information was found in Congregational documents to support the hypothesis that a plan existed. However, a wealth of information was revealed from the questionnaire and subsequent interviews.; The results showed that Maryknoll Sisters were predominantly those who chose mission as their life work. From detailed job profiles a pattern emerged which indicated high personal satisfaction with the choice of mission made for them by the Congregation.; The study includes a description of the methods of analysis used for known group research with a detailed appendix charting the construction of the Code Book for responses generated from open-ended questions.