ABSTRACT
The intellectual revolutions of the years of midpassage from 1865 to 1918 were matched by swift and bewildering change as a result of rapid technological advance. "Steam and electricity have tremendously increased the pace of life," reported an observer in 1896. Many rubrics have been used to characterize the impact upon society of this massive industrial development. In institutional life, and especially in daily and weekly worship and devotional activities, women participated to a greater degree than men. In the nineteenth century, women sought more active roles as preachers and ordained clergy. Women's efforts to enter into these ranks were resisted by churches, and the male leadership of the denominations generated a variety of arguments against female preaching and ordination. Some women—such as Anna Shaw and Phoebe Palmer—became active social reformers in addition to answering their calls to preach. The conceptual basis for women's involvement in social reform developed its characteristic features in the early nineteenth century.
