Woman, Church, and State

[redqueen]

Full text is at the link.

http://www.sacred-texts.com/wmn/wcs/index.htm

During the second wave of feminism in the 1960s and 70s a popular slogan was "not the church, not the state, women shall decide their fate". Matilda Joslyn Gage would have approved. Vehemently anti-clerical, Women, Church and State was one of the first books to draw the conclusion that Christianity is a primary impediment to the progress of women, as well as civilization. Then, as now, religious doctrine was used as a justification for the dehumanization of women, depriving them of civil, human, economic and political rights, even denying them the right to worship alongside men. Gage reviews extensive evidence of this complex. From a 21st Century perspective it is both astounding how far we have progressed, and dismaying how little has changed.

Gage was one of the first writers to emphasize the ancient Matriarchy and the witch trials as key episodes of women's history. Her statement that nine million people were killed during the witch trials has been widely quoted; more recent estimates range from 50 to 100 thousand, which does not lessen the horror.

This book had numerous typographical errors. The etext has an extensive errata list of corrections, which appear in bold in the body of the text.

http://www.matildajoslyngage.org/

[seabeyond]

1. what a woman. i hear women thru out history saying the same things we are saying today.

but, i think, we have progressed so. that our thinking should be uniquely advanced.

not so much.

women of all times recognized the injustice and had the will to speak out

[ismnotwasm]

2. And I wonder how the always vicious homophobia arose from this

Women delegated as commodities and child producers only had an incalcuable impact on societal evolution. I know that women as property predates those societies where male homosexuality was an accepted practice, but as the power of the church grew and homosexuality was suppressed and severely punished, society not only never developed a heathy and honorable place for women, but regulated male homosexuality to 'abomination' lesbians are spoken of much less, although still condemned and repressed, possibly because of women's status as objects to be used or owned, or treated as mentally deficient.

I've also often wondered if the miscalculation of witch burning numbers arose from a misunderstanding of what the population actually was, and what the actual percentage of women murdered was, as opposed to numbers. Seems like I read that somewhere at one point, but I don't remember now.

It will take me a bit to read through this, I love this kind of history. It's fun when it's on-line