Access to the full content is only available to members of institutions that have purchased access. If you belong to such an institution, please log in or find out more about how to order.


Women and Belief, 1852–1928


The period covered by this volume (1869–91) was a time of immense change and development in both Britain and North America. It marks the height of the first wave of the women’s movement and, by 1891, women had made large strides towards legal and social equality, although there was still much to be done. Improvements were made to women’s access to education and the professions, married women’s property rights, access to the divorce courts, and legal protection from abusive husbands. In America, 1869 witnessed the formation of both the National Woman Suffrage Association and the American Woman Suffrage Association, and in the same year women in the state of Wyoming were granted the right to vote. By the end of the nineteenth century, three more states (Idaho, Colorado and Utah) had followed suit. In Canada, women were granted limited voting rights in a number of provinces in the final two decades of the nineteenth century. Although British women were not enfranchised until 1918, suffrage was a major focus of the Victorian feminist movement throughout this period. Among the arguments employed against female suffrage was the notion that it would contradict the role of women as prescribed by the church and bible, as Horace Bushnell’s entry in this volume demonstrates.

Volume Contents

  • content locked
    Front Matter
  • content locked
    Introduction to Volume IV Edited by Jessica Cox; Nadine Muller
    By Jessica Cox; Nadine Muller
  • Women’s Suffrage: The Reform Against Nature (New York: Charles Scribner and Company, 1869) By Horace Bushnell
    • content locked
      I
      Preliminary.—Question Stated
    • content locked
      II
      No Right of Suffrage Absolute in Man or Woman
    • content locked
      III
      Woman not Created or Called to Govern
    • content locked
      IV
      Scripture Doctrine Coincides
    • content locked
      V
      Subtle Mistakes of Feeling and Argument
    • content locked
      VI
      The Report of History
    • content locked
      VII
      Probable Effects
    • content locked
      VIII
      Prospects and Possibilities of Women
    • content locked
      Condensed Catalogue of The Publications of Charles Scribner & Co., 654 Broadway, New York By Charles Scribner; A. C. Armstrong; A. J. Peabody
  • The Importance of Religion to Woman (Stratford, Ontario: James Robb, 1875) By Mrs. Annie Bollo Stagg
    • content locked
      Importance of Religion to Woman
    • content locked
      The Reproach of Woman: Genesis, The Third Chapter
    • content locked
      Woman
    • content locked
      Obedience
    • content locked
      Government of the Temper
    • content locked
      Causes of Female Influence
    • content locked
      Female Duties
    • content locked
      Filial Duty
    • content locked
      On Female Romance
    • content locked
      Moral Deportment
    • content locked
      Piety
    • content locked
      Fortitude
    • content locked
      Charity
    • content locked
      Consideration
    • content locked
      Conclusion
  • content locked
    Woman outside Christendom. An exposition of the influence exerted by Christianity on the social position and happiness of women (London: Trübner & Co., 1880) By J. G. Mandley
    • content locked
      Chapter I
    • content locked
      Chapter II
    • content locked
      Chapter III
    • content locked
      Chapter IV
    • content locked
      Chapter V
    • content locked
      Chapter VI
    • content locked
      Chapter VII
    • content locked
      Chapter VIII
    • content locked
      Chapter IX
    • content locked
      Conclusion
  • content locked
    13
    What is Spiritualism? A paper read at the Annual Conference of the Christian Women’s Union, held in Glasgow, November 12th, 1884 (London: Alfred Holness, 1884) By Mrs. E. M’Hardie
  • content locked
    14
    Why women should be secularists (London: Progressive Publishing Company, 1891) By Louisa Samson