[7] ‘Born to serve’: women and evangelical religion

The patriarchal nature of mainstream religious organizations has, until recently, been reflected in the exclusion of women from church government and from playing all but a passive role in its most important rituals. Paradoxically, attendance statistics suggest that, at congregational level at least, female participation is predominant. Moreover, recent historical studies, concerned to shift the focus from the institutional and political aspects of religion to its broader social and cultural content, have drawn attention to the variety of ways in which women experienced religion and have stressed their important contribution to the religious community. While the growing interest in the role of women in history generally has been impeded by the deficiency and flaws of historical material, the prolific sources of denominations such as Methodism and the Society of Friends and the wealth of material left by voluntary religious agencies, have proved irresistible to historians. Although in terms of personal and social constraints, evangelicalism’s repression of sexuality, emphasis on domestic virtues and opposition to many forms of popular entertainment, had a restricting effect on the contribution of women to the wider secular society, there is much evidence to support the suggestion that evangelical religion was more important than feminism in enlarging women’s sphere of action during the nineteenth century.