Women’s History and Religious Innovation

Scholars agree in discerning discrepancies between men and women in discussions of secularization, yet often base such discussions on relatively shallow social survey data about individual piety. This chapter points away from views of women’s religiosity as a private matter towards the role of women’s organizations in public life. Such groups epitomize the voluntarism that is often suggested as an explanation of the vibrancy of nineteenth- and twentieth-century religious movements in the United States, in contrast to secularization in Europe. The Women’s Christian Temperance Union in particular offers opportunities for comparison. When its leader, Frances Willard, relocated to England, she expected to generate the same enthusiasm that had made her one of the most influential women leaders in America. The attempt foundered on the lack of receptivity among British women for Willard’s famous ‘Do Everything’ policy, an attempt they viewed as distinctively American.