Evangelicalism and the Power of Women

Willing women and the rise of convents in nineteenth-century England

“…Further, on the link between women and religion, Rendall (1985), positing the nineteenth-century 'feminisation' of religion, suggests that women were gaining ground because religion permitted a frame in which the changing demographic and social situation of women could be expressed. [28] If, as Rendall argues, religion incorporated a potential for female power, this would essentially be accompanied by a male requirement to regulate such power. One means of control was the presentation of the Virgin Mary as a role model.…”