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Related Resources • Index to Etexts on Women's History • Women and Religion

Note that this entry is a product of its time, and should be read in that context. Footnotes have been omitted to make the text easier to follow. Also note that scanning and editing may have introduced a few errors into the transcription. Because of these errors, if you need to use this information in an academic paper, please consult the original, available at many libraries.

This continues the entry under "Women" in the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica. This paragraph originally appeared as a footnote.

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In the olden times before the Reformation in England various religious communities absorbed a large number of the surplus female population, and in High Church and Roman Catholic circles many ladies still enter various sisterhoods and devote their lives to teaching the young, visiting the poor and nursing the sick. In the Church of England the only office which remained open to women was the modest one of churchwarden, and this office is not infrequently filled by women. The Convocation of Canterbury in 1908 refused by a majority, of two to admit women to parochial church councils, though qualified persons of the female sex may vote for parochial lay representatives on the church council. In the Independent Churches there are fewer restrictions. Among the Congregationalists women have equal votes on all questions and may become deacons or, even ministers; Miss Jane Brown has been recognized as pastor of Brotherton Congregational Church, Yorkshire, and Miss L. Smith as pastor of that in Cardiff, and in the Methodist Church women frequently act as local preachers. The same equality and share in religious work is accorded to women by the Baptists,, the Society of Friends and the Salvation Army, the success of which is largely due to them. In Unitarian congregations in the United States and Australia many women have been appointed ministers, and in England the Rev. Gertrude von Petzold held in 1910 the post of minister of the Narborough Road Free Christian Church, Leicester.

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More of this article: General | Mosaic Law, Ancient India | Roman Law | Christian Law  | Northern Europe Law | English Law | Husband and Wife | Criminal Law | Education | Professions | Nursing and Medicine | Government and Politics | Women Practicing Law | Women as Clergy | Women's Rights Agitation | Woman Suffrage | Woman Suffrage 1865-1906 | Woman Suffrage 1906-1910 | Woman Suffrage Societies | Woman Suffrage New Zealand and Australia | Woman Suffrage America | Woman Suffrage Europe | Woman Suffrage International | Sources

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Part of a collection of etexts on women's history produced by Jone Johnson Lewis. Editing and formatting © 1999-2003 Jone Johnson Lewis.