Situating the evolution of Methodist education for women in Ontario within the larger social and cultural context, Methodists and Women's Education in Ontario describes the often unintended and unforeseen forces unleashed by women's education and the ambivalent and sometimes reactionary education policy created in response to the threat an educated woman posed to society, the church, and the family.

Selles documents nearly a century of Methodist education from the early seminary movement in Upper Canada, through the establishment of ladies' colleges, to the admission of women into the university. She reconstructs what life was like for women at these institutions and highlights changing ideologies, curricula, and views on women's education as well as introducing some of the unique personalities who shaped Methodist higher education.

Selles concludes that by attempting to create an ideal Christian woman through education, Methodist education structures consciously created and imposed a class-based gender ideology.