Women and Quakerism

by Hope Elizabeth Luder

Overview

The number of famous and socially active women in the Society of Friends has been out of all proportion to its size. Especially striking is the fact that two of the most famous leaders of the Women's Rights Movement in the United States, Lucretia Mott and Susan B. Anthony, came from Quaker backgrounds. Other outstanding women in Quaker history include Mary Dyer, religious martyr hanged on Boston Common, Mary Fisher, missionary traveller to the Sultan of Turkey, Elizabeth Fry, the famous' English prison reformer, the Grimké sisters, precedent breaking abolitionists and feminists, and many others whose ideas were influential both within Quakerism and outside it, and whose public speaking appearances caused amazement and controversy.

Why did Quakerism produce so many outstanding women? The following essay attempts to answer that question, and to describe the lives and achievements of some of these remarkable people.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940156766208
Publisher:	Pendle Hill Publications
Publication date:	12/01/2016
Series:	Pendle Hill Pamphlets , #196
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	30
File size:	128 KB

About the Author

Hope Luder has been teaching high school history for several years, and this summer had a taste of college teaching. An experienced traveller, she once was able to stay several months with I kind family in Mexico partly because they had read about Quakers and liked her simply for being one! She values her membership in Cambridge Friends Meeting, whose Executive Secretary, Elmer Brown, has given her much help in her research on women and Quakerism.

The current issues of the women’s movement, including the problems of sex roles, have sparked her interest in an historical topic she has long been aware of. While taking a graduate course on “Women and U.S. History” at Middlesex Community College, she presented an oral report on Quakerism and women, and found that it aroused much interest in the non-Quaker class. When the instructor, Selma Williams, herself an author, encouraged Hope to prepare the material for publication, she continued her research, which has proved lengthy and exciting, and the contacts made, very pleasant.

She would like to take advantage of this space to ask readers for information or opinions which might contribute to a future article or book.