In Their Own Right: The History of American Clergywomen

In recent years, a number of books, notably Susan Hill Lindley's You Have Stepped Out of Your Place, have addressed the roles of women in American religious history. The Schneiders, authors of Sound Off: American Military Women Speak Out, offer a fresh perspective on the history of women in American religion by focusing on the lives and work of women who have actively participated in preaching and pastoring in American religious denominations. The authors open their history with stories of ""preaching women"" like Anne Hutchinson, the colonial woman who taught a large circle of women listeners about the doctrine of grace in her home, and Mary Dyer, the Quaker woman whose public preaching eventually led to her execution by the Quakers. The authors trace the history of the development of the roles of women as clergy in mainline Christian denominations like Methodism and Roman Catholicism, in sectarian movements like Pentecostal Holiness and Seventh-Day Adventism and in the three main branches of Judaism. Using documentary history to retell the stories of 18th- and 19th-century clergywomen and oral history to narrate the triumphs and defeats of 20th-century clergywomen, the Schneiders weave a colorful tapestry. (June)