Woman's Missionary Union

Woman's Missionary Union (WMU) is an auxiliary of the Southern Baptist Convention that was founded in 1888. It is the largest Protestant missions organization for women in the world.

During the meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention in Richmond, Virginia, in May 1888, a group of women delegates from 12 states gathered at the Broad Street United Methodist Church and organized the Executive Committee of the Woman's Mission Societies, Auxiliary to Southern Baptist Convention.

In previous years, women had been meeting during the convention to discuss the possibilities of creating a missions organization. During the 1888 meeting, a constitution was adopted and the first officers were elected. Baltimore, Maryland, was chosen as headquarters.

Fannie E.S. Heck led the Woman's Missionary Union after 1892 for about 15 years.

Annie Armstrong (pictured left), elected as the first corresponding secretary during the organizational meeting, lived in Baltimore. WMU was originally established and remains an auxiliary to the Southern Baptist Convention, which means that it acts as a "helper" to the SBC. The auxiliary status also means that WMU is self-governing and self-supporting.

Prior to this meeting, women had been gathering to pray for missions under the leadership of women such as Ann Baker Graves. In 1871, Baptist women in Baltimore founded Woman's Mission to Woman for the purpose of prayer and dissemination of information about missionaries. Maryland Baptist women began publishing and distributing missions literature in 1887. Although many southern states had a missions organization for women, there was no central body to provide unity or coordinate efforts. The time had come for the women to organize and the founding mothers of WMU established an organization that has been supporting Baptist missions for over a century. WMU has been blessed with the leadership of seven magnificent corresponding secretaries/executive directors (Wanda Lee serves currently) and seventeen presidents (Kaye Miller serves currently).

In 1890 the women adopted the name Woman's Missionary Union, Auxiliary to Southern Baptist Convention. The headquarters of WMU was originally stationed in the Maryland Baptist Missions Reading Room where Annie Armstrong had an already established office.

In 1921, the national headquarters was moved to Birmingham, Alabama under the guidance of Kathleen Mallory to 1111 Comer Building. As WMU grew into its own, space began to be a problem at the national headquarters. In 1951, WMU purchased property at 600 North 20th Street in downtown Birmingham. It was during these years that WMU membership reached an all-time high of 1.5 million women under the dynamic leadership of Alma Hunt, who served as executive secretary from 1948 to 1974.

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