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The Sexual Crisis and Popular Religion in London, 1770–1820

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 December 2008

Anna Clark
Anna Clark
Affiliation:
University of North Carolina at Charlotte
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Extract

Religion is becoming a crucial issue in women's history. Tired of portraying women as misguided victims, historians have begun to show how women have used religion, especially radical religion, to gain added status or at least impart meaning to their lives.l But in this new portrayal we must be careful to untangle the threads of female religious symbolism from the realities of women's lives, to examine the contrast between the opportunities for women in radical religion and the restrictions placed upon them by established churches and chapels. Furthermore, we must consider that religion is vital to the construction of masculinity in strengthening patriarchal power but also in revealing the needs of men, especially plebeian and working-class men, to cope with their lack of power.

Type
Religion and the Working Class
Information
International Labor and Working-Class History , Volume 34 , Fall 1988 , pp. 56 - 69
Copyright
Copyright © International Labor and Working-Class History, Inc. 1988

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References

NOTES

I would like to thank Judith Walkowitz, John Gillis, Ellen Ross, and Leonore Davidoff for their comments and support.

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