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Woman, Church and State
This classic history of women's oppression is one of the first attempts to document the legacy of injustice and discrimination against women, which is inseparable from both the history of Christianity and the evolution of the Western state.
Pioneering women's rights advocate Matilda Joslyn Gage (1826-1898) traces the patterns of male domination in both church and state that kept women in virtual bondage. Among the topics of her research are the medieval belief that women were unclean and the cause of original sin, their discrimination in canon law, their abuse in the feudal system, the witch-hunts, the virtual slave status of wives and their legal subjugation to their husbands, the debilitating drudgery of women's daily work, and the widespread opposition to women's education.
Originally published in 1893, this work was the fruit of twenty years' research. Complementing this edition is an introduction by author and lecturer Sally Roesch Wagner, who helped found one of America's first programs in women's studies. She is Executive Director of the Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation in Fayetteville, New York.
409 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1893
About the author
Matilda Joslyn Gage
94 books26 followersMatilda Electa Joslyn Gage (March 24, 1826 – March 18, 1898) was a suffragist, a Native American rights activist, an abolitionist, a freethinker, and a prolific author, who was "born with a hatred of oppression".
Matilda Gage spent her childhood in a house which was used as a station of the Underground Railroad. She faced prison for her actions under the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 which criminalized assistance to escaped slaves. Even though she was beset by both financial and physical (cardiac) problems throughout her life, her work for women's rights was extensive, practical, and often brilliantly executed.
A daughter of the early abolitionist Hezekiah Joslyn, Gage was the wife of Henry Hill Gage, with whom she had five children: Charles Henry (who died in infancy), Helen Leslie, Thomas Clarkson, Julia Louise, and Maud. Gage lived in Fayetteville, New York for the majority of her life.
Maud, who was ten years younger than Julia, initially horrified her mother when she chose to marry author L. Frank Baum (The Wonderful Wizard of Oz) at a time when he was a struggling actor with only a handful of plays (of which only The Maid of Arran survives) to his writing credit. However, a few minutes after the initial announcement, Gage started laughing, apparently realizing that her emphasis on all individuals making up their own minds was not lost on her headstrong daughter, who gave up a chance at a law career when the opportunity for women was rare. Gage spent six months of every year with Maud and Frank. Gage's son Thomas Clarkson Gage and his wife Sophia had a daughter named Dorothy Louise Gage, who was born in Bloomington, Illinois on June 11, 1898, but died five months later, on November 11, 1898.
The death so upset the child's aunt Maud, who had always longed for a daughter, that she required medical attention. Thomas Clarkson Gage's child was the namesake of her uncle Frank Baum's famed fictional character, Dorothy Gale. In 1996, Dr. Sally Roesch Wagner, a biographer of Matilda Joslyn Gage, located young Dorothy's grave in Bloomington. A memorial was erected in the child's memory at her gravesite on May 21, 1997. This child is often mistaken for her cousin of the same name, Dorothy Louise Gage (1883–1889), Helen Leslie (Gage) Gage's child.
Gage died in the Baum home in Chicago, in 1898. Although Gage was cremated, there is a memorial stone at Fayetteville Cemetery that bears her slogan "There is a word sweeter than Mother, Home or Heaven. That word is Liberty."
Matilda Gage spent her childhood in a house which was used as a station of the Underground Railroad. She faced prison for her actions under the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 which criminalized assistance to escaped slaves. Even though she was beset by both financial and physical (cardiac) problems throughout her life, her work for women's rights was extensive, practical, and often brilliantly executed.
A daughter of the early abolitionist Hezekiah Joslyn, Gage was the wife of Henry Hill Gage, with whom she had five children: Charles Henry (who died in infancy), Helen Leslie, Thomas Clarkson, Julia Louise, and Maud. Gage lived in Fayetteville, New York for the majority of her life.
Maud, who was ten years younger than Julia, initially horrified her mother when she chose to marry author L. Frank Baum (The Wonderful Wizard of Oz) at a time when he was a struggling actor with only a handful of plays (of which only The Maid of Arran survives) to his writing credit. However, a few minutes after the initial announcement, Gage started laughing, apparently realizing that her emphasis on all individuals making up their own minds was not lost on her headstrong daughter, who gave up a chance at a law career when the opportunity for women was rare. Gage spent six months of every year with Maud and Frank. Gage's son Thomas Clarkson Gage and his wife Sophia had a daughter named Dorothy Louise Gage, who was born in Bloomington, Illinois on June 11, 1898, but died five months later, on November 11, 1898.
The death so upset the child's aunt Maud, who had always longed for a daughter, that she required medical attention. Thomas Clarkson Gage's child was the namesake of her uncle Frank Baum's famed fictional character, Dorothy Gale. In 1996, Dr. Sally Roesch Wagner, a biographer of Matilda Joslyn Gage, located young Dorothy's grave in Bloomington. A memorial was erected in the child's memory at her gravesite on May 21, 1997. This child is often mistaken for her cousin of the same name, Dorothy Louise Gage (1883–1889), Helen Leslie (Gage) Gage's child.
Gage died in the Baum home in Chicago, in 1898. Although Gage was cremated, there is a memorial stone at Fayetteville Cemetery that bears her slogan "There is a word sweeter than Mother, Home or Heaven. That word is Liberty."
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
October 9, 2008
A classic of feminist theory, from that all-important "first wave" -- a must-read for all women.
July 28, 2016
I recently read "White Women's Rights: The racial origins of feminism in the United States" by Louise Newman and wanted to review suffragist writing through Newman's lens. My friend had a copy of "Woman, Church, and State" and let me borrow it. I'm about half way through and I must admit that while I was intrigued by her first chapter, the second one, Celibacy, was more disturbing in the way that Gage subtly attempts to link, directly, the institution of US slavery and enslaved Africans with that of white, European women and their oppression through the patriarchy, most visibly represented by the church and the state.
Gage has a lot to offer. She's a compelling writer, well researched, and makes some good arguments. However, I cannot escape Angela Davis' critique of the suffragettes nor Newman's theoretical lens.
Specifically, Newman critiques early (white) feminism through the lens of racism, colonialism, and (racist) evolutionary theory. And with that lens, Gage is starting to come into focus (no pun intended).
I'm going to keep reading and see where Gage lands, but it seems shaky at this point.
July 30, 2016
Nearing the end of the chapter Marquette where she starts with the creation of church law/dogma that gives lords and religious officials the right to rape newly wedded women. She goes from here to prostitution. Gage makes declarative, generalizing statements wrapped tight in her version of morality, which muddies her argument. The more I read, the more the argument is slowly being made that women's degradation and indignity is the same as slavery in the US. And I must dig my heels in on that. Both are horrible institutions, but they are pointedly different. For instance, enslaved Africans were human chattel, not human beings with some recognition of their humanness. Gage talks about serfs working the land and how they lord would come and take half the wool and half the harvest. Upon being wed, the lord would come down from the castle and demand the newly wedded woman go with him for three days, without her new husband, presumably to rape. Gage notes that half the harvest would be held by the family. She also noted that serfs could buy their way out of having the newly wedded woman be taken and raped by the lord. Again, these are disgusting things and Gage has certainly done her homework. But enslaved Africans had nothing to hang onto--no land to till where half the harvest was theirs to keep. Further, when a slave master wanted to rape an enslaved African woman, he would rape her. There were no options for getting out of such an ordeal. Harriet Washington wrote an amazing book on Black people being used for medical experimentation in the US from the time of the first colonizers all the way to the 21st century. Again, this is not to dismiss the plight of European or white women, but her subtle attempts to make a one to one analogy between the institution of slavery and white women hurts her more than helps her.
Yes, her research and history of women's oppression under the church and the state is very compelling. However, Gage is trapped in a time and place where her political perspective is clouded in paternalism, racism, and colonialism.
From Newman: "With the use of two tropes, that of sisterhood and uplift, white women claimed to share the victimization of slaves rather than to identify with the power and privilege of the white male oppressor. The exclusion of enslaved black women from the categories of both 'slaves' and 'women' was a common feature of white abolitionist-suffragist discourse, although white women sometimes invoked claims to a universal sisterhood that contained assumptions about a universal womanly character. At the same time, the tropes of sisterhood and uplift began to foster and reflect a new self-understanding among white women that they, as white women, had a moral responsibility to reform an evil social and political system."
Onward.
Update: August 6, 2016
I took a brief 2 day hiatus from this to read something else, but now I'm back.
I wanted to go back to the Marquette chapter for a second. On page 210 she says, "Until woman holds political power in her own hands, her efforts for protective legislation will be arduous and protracted." For me, this line sums up a lot of her political appeal in the book. The use of the word "until" is important. The context she wrote this book in was the push for (white) women's suffrage in the US. In Newman's book, she spoke about how white women would cast themselves as saviors of native people and enslaved Africans because they had the intellect, the schooling, the connections, and the moral indignation. So the line above spoke to me because she seems to be telling the reader that until white women are enfranchised, we cannot expect civilization to rise above barbarity and savagery. And again, I am not knocking her research or the history of oppression felt by European women. But the social context in which the work was written--it was not written as a stand alone history of women's oppression--is really important to keep in mind. And it gnaws at me as I continue reading because I see her trying desperately to make this 1 to 1 analogy between the institutions of slavery and (white) women's oppression. It makes me uneasy.
My other concern with the idea that if women just controlled stuff things would be different, and granted this was written in a totally different period, doesn't sit with me either. I look today at women in the military, women CEOs, or a woman potentially to become the next president. I look at police forces that are a super-majority white and get a black chief as if that will resolve the violence of the system and the unequal scrutiny put upon people of color. And I see how these individuals, when they take the top position in the dominator culture, do not systematically change the system for a better one. If anything, they become indoctrinated in these dominator cultures and perpetuate the injustice, violence, and greed of their male peers. And this is why feminism fails if its goal is simply to reach equal footing with men. The dominator culture is not changed nor are the systems of violence that keep our society segregated. Gage, and many feminists of her time, felt this was the goal. It is a misguided goal. But it's easy to reflect on these issues in hindsight.
The chapter on witchcraft was horrifying and vastly interesting. It tells the story of how white men have used ignorance and fear to dominate others in their pursuit of prestige, wealth, and power.
I approach the last few chapters!
August 28, 2016
I read a couple of books between starting and finishing this one. I've got about 40 pages left. Whew. I finished her chapter on Wives which talks about the oppression of marriage and all that that entails. I did notice that she cooled it a bit on the direct comparisons between enslaved Africans and white women. I appreciated that. This chapter did annoy me a bit in its length and repetition. I read the same argument three times in this 40+ page chapter. I mean, based on when she wrote it and why, it makes sense.
I just finished the chapter on polygamy where she really REALLY lays into the Mormon church and Christianity in general. It was an interesting read, again with a lot of criticism directed at the Mormons.
Her comment at the end of the chapter (see below) is not surprising coming from a woman in an era where white men made all decisions and white women were supposed to be led by those white men and be obedient to those white men. It's the same kind of commentary that says if more women or people of color were at the top, then society would be better. I think the issue is the structure of society and the systems of domination, and not necessarily the "diversity" of people of who run and benefit from white supremacist imperialist capitalist patriarchy. (Thanks bell hooks!)
"Polygamy and all kindred degradations of her sex will become things of the past, and taking her rightful place in church and state she will open a new civilization to the world." (p. 409)
Again, based on the time she wrote it, such a statement seems radical, and if fact was, then. However, today, we know that just because a woman is head of a major corporation or government, or that a person of color becomes a police chief over a predominantly white force, this does not equate into the idea that this figurehead will "open a new civilization," or deliver justice for all people.
Looking at history, we see these brief, historical milestones as something the populace gets behind to their detriment as the actual policies are overlooked or disregarded by the vast majority. The trap for activists and radicals today, is to read something like this and then make the conclusion that if we only had all women lead, then things would change. You don't change the system, the system changes you.
We should also be wary of anyone who promotes the idea that if we just took control of the state or the church, that things would be better for all. The power of these systems must be rejected and dismantled if we are concerned with liberation.
Finishing up the last few chapters. She has an incredible grasp of the oppression of white women. I am curious to see how she concludes.
September 8, 2016
Done. By the end of the book she is railing hard against the christian church. Again, an amazing display of knowledge and persuasive argument regarding the oppression of (white) women. The last couple of chapters were really thoroughly focused on the church and the state that codified religious dogma. When I began this review I was worried that her argument was going to end with her making a one to one comparison between formerly enslaved Africans and the oppression of white, European women. Thankfully, she veered away from that conclusion and instead heralded a coming revolution that would inevitably split the christian church right down the middle. Today, it feels to me more like the christian dogma and associated organized religion is becoming obsolete rather than tearing the spiritual and religious seems of the United States apart.
By the end I really wasn't completely sure where she was going. Her argumentation broke down somewhat. Reading Newman's book DID give me a useful lens from which to see and name aspects of her work that were oppressive in other ways and I really appreciated that.
It's a long book and can repeat itself in parts. It is also a fascinating study of the oppression of white, European women. It's worth the critical read. Read Newman and Davis too.
Gage has a lot to offer. She's a compelling writer, well researched, and makes some good arguments. However, I cannot escape Angela Davis' critique of the suffragettes nor Newman's theoretical lens.
Specifically, Newman critiques early (white) feminism through the lens of racism, colonialism, and (racist) evolutionary theory. And with that lens, Gage is starting to come into focus (no pun intended).
I'm going to keep reading and see where Gage lands, but it seems shaky at this point.
July 30, 2016
Nearing the end of the chapter Marquette where she starts with the creation of church law/dogma that gives lords and religious officials the right to rape newly wedded women. She goes from here to prostitution. Gage makes declarative, generalizing statements wrapped tight in her version of morality, which muddies her argument. The more I read, the more the argument is slowly being made that women's degradation and indignity is the same as slavery in the US. And I must dig my heels in on that. Both are horrible institutions, but they are pointedly different. For instance, enslaved Africans were human chattel, not human beings with some recognition of their humanness. Gage talks about serfs working the land and how they lord would come and take half the wool and half the harvest. Upon being wed, the lord would come down from the castle and demand the newly wedded woman go with him for three days, without her new husband, presumably to rape. Gage notes that half the harvest would be held by the family. She also noted that serfs could buy their way out of having the newly wedded woman be taken and raped by the lord. Again, these are disgusting things and Gage has certainly done her homework. But enslaved Africans had nothing to hang onto--no land to till where half the harvest was theirs to keep. Further, when a slave master wanted to rape an enslaved African woman, he would rape her. There were no options for getting out of such an ordeal. Harriet Washington wrote an amazing book on Black people being used for medical experimentation in the US from the time of the first colonizers all the way to the 21st century. Again, this is not to dismiss the plight of European or white women, but her subtle attempts to make a one to one analogy between the institution of slavery and white women hurts her more than helps her.
Yes, her research and history of women's oppression under the church and the state is very compelling. However, Gage is trapped in a time and place where her political perspective is clouded in paternalism, racism, and colonialism.
From Newman: "With the use of two tropes, that of sisterhood and uplift, white women claimed to share the victimization of slaves rather than to identify with the power and privilege of the white male oppressor. The exclusion of enslaved black women from the categories of both 'slaves' and 'women' was a common feature of white abolitionist-suffragist discourse, although white women sometimes invoked claims to a universal sisterhood that contained assumptions about a universal womanly character. At the same time, the tropes of sisterhood and uplift began to foster and reflect a new self-understanding among white women that they, as white women, had a moral responsibility to reform an evil social and political system."
Onward.
Update: August 6, 2016
I took a brief 2 day hiatus from this to read something else, but now I'm back.
I wanted to go back to the Marquette chapter for a second. On page 210 she says, "Until woman holds political power in her own hands, her efforts for protective legislation will be arduous and protracted." For me, this line sums up a lot of her political appeal in the book. The use of the word "until" is important. The context she wrote this book in was the push for (white) women's suffrage in the US. In Newman's book, she spoke about how white women would cast themselves as saviors of native people and enslaved Africans because they had the intellect, the schooling, the connections, and the moral indignation. So the line above spoke to me because she seems to be telling the reader that until white women are enfranchised, we cannot expect civilization to rise above barbarity and savagery. And again, I am not knocking her research or the history of oppression felt by European women. But the social context in which the work was written--it was not written as a stand alone history of women's oppression--is really important to keep in mind. And it gnaws at me as I continue reading because I see her trying desperately to make this 1 to 1 analogy between the institutions of slavery and (white) women's oppression. It makes me uneasy.
My other concern with the idea that if women just controlled stuff things would be different, and granted this was written in a totally different period, doesn't sit with me either. I look today at women in the military, women CEOs, or a woman potentially to become the next president. I look at police forces that are a super-majority white and get a black chief as if that will resolve the violence of the system and the unequal scrutiny put upon people of color. And I see how these individuals, when they take the top position in the dominator culture, do not systematically change the system for a better one. If anything, they become indoctrinated in these dominator cultures and perpetuate the injustice, violence, and greed of their male peers. And this is why feminism fails if its goal is simply to reach equal footing with men. The dominator culture is not changed nor are the systems of violence that keep our society segregated. Gage, and many feminists of her time, felt this was the goal. It is a misguided goal. But it's easy to reflect on these issues in hindsight.
The chapter on witchcraft was horrifying and vastly interesting. It tells the story of how white men have used ignorance and fear to dominate others in their pursuit of prestige, wealth, and power.
I approach the last few chapters!
August 28, 2016
I read a couple of books between starting and finishing this one. I've got about 40 pages left. Whew. I finished her chapter on Wives which talks about the oppression of marriage and all that that entails. I did notice that she cooled it a bit on the direct comparisons between enslaved Africans and white women. I appreciated that. This chapter did annoy me a bit in its length and repetition. I read the same argument three times in this 40+ page chapter. I mean, based on when she wrote it and why, it makes sense.
I just finished the chapter on polygamy where she really REALLY lays into the Mormon church and Christianity in general. It was an interesting read, again with a lot of criticism directed at the Mormons.
Her comment at the end of the chapter (see below) is not surprising coming from a woman in an era where white men made all decisions and white women were supposed to be led by those white men and be obedient to those white men. It's the same kind of commentary that says if more women or people of color were at the top, then society would be better. I think the issue is the structure of society and the systems of domination, and not necessarily the "diversity" of people of who run and benefit from white supremacist imperialist capitalist patriarchy. (Thanks bell hooks!)
"Polygamy and all kindred degradations of her sex will become things of the past, and taking her rightful place in church and state she will open a new civilization to the world." (p. 409)
Again, based on the time she wrote it, such a statement seems radical, and if fact was, then. However, today, we know that just because a woman is head of a major corporation or government, or that a person of color becomes a police chief over a predominantly white force, this does not equate into the idea that this figurehead will "open a new civilization," or deliver justice for all people.
Looking at history, we see these brief, historical milestones as something the populace gets behind to their detriment as the actual policies are overlooked or disregarded by the vast majority. The trap for activists and radicals today, is to read something like this and then make the conclusion that if we only had all women lead, then things would change. You don't change the system, the system changes you.
We should also be wary of anyone who promotes the idea that if we just took control of the state or the church, that things would be better for all. The power of these systems must be rejected and dismantled if we are concerned with liberation.
Finishing up the last few chapters. She has an incredible grasp of the oppression of white women. I am curious to see how she concludes.
September 8, 2016
Done. By the end of the book she is railing hard against the christian church. Again, an amazing display of knowledge and persuasive argument regarding the oppression of (white) women. The last couple of chapters were really thoroughly focused on the church and the state that codified religious dogma. When I began this review I was worried that her argument was going to end with her making a one to one comparison between formerly enslaved Africans and the oppression of white, European women. Thankfully, she veered away from that conclusion and instead heralded a coming revolution that would inevitably split the christian church right down the middle. Today, it feels to me more like the christian dogma and associated organized religion is becoming obsolete rather than tearing the spiritual and religious seems of the United States apart.
By the end I really wasn't completely sure where she was going. Her argumentation broke down somewhat. Reading Newman's book DID give me a useful lens from which to see and name aspects of her work that were oppressive in other ways and I really appreciated that.
It's a long book and can repeat itself in parts. It is also a fascinating study of the oppression of white, European women. It's worth the critical read. Read Newman and Davis too.
March 27, 2013
I am currently re-reading in PDF downloaded from Google Books Woman, Church and State by Matilda Joslyn Gage on a tablet computer.
Matilda Joslyn Gage was raised in an Abolitionist home that was a stop on the Underground Railroad. A mother of four, she was a founding member of the National Woman Suffrage Association along with Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Her life's work was the struggle for the complete liberation of women. Carved on her gravestone are the words she lived by: "There is a word sweeter than Mother, Home or Heaven; that word is Liberty."
Originally published in 1893, this book is a major feminist work of the Nineteenth Century that identifies the sources of women's oppression as the church and its offspring, the state. Alarmed by the conservative religious movement of the time that tried to amend the Constitution to declare the U.S. a Christian state, Gage wrote this book to articulate her views that christianity was the oppressor of women.
In the first chapter called The Matriarchate, the author tells of the rights women had in pagan pre-christian times. She talks of the Mother-rule, that preceded Patriarchy. She then shows that christianity from its beginning has worked to undermine women's rights.
The following seven chapters outline the oppression of women in the west and its sources in first the church, and later in the state that developed its ruling principles from canon law. These chapters deal with Celibacy, Canon Law, Marquette (a term that Gage uses for jus primae noctis, the right of lords to the sexual favors of their peasant women), Witchcraft, Wives, Polygamy, and Work. These chapters are filled with examples from history as well as the contemporary 19th century. The documented examples of women's oppression at the hands of ministers of the church and the law in this section are an impressive collection that makes this book a valuable source for feminist herstory.
In the last two chapters, Gage looks at the church of her day and shows that it is still bogged down in the same dogma of women's oppression. She predicts a great revolution which will liberate women and give them equal rights with men in both religion and society. I am sure the women's movement of the 1970s with its emphasis on women's spirituality and the Equal Rights Amendment would have convinced her that she was right.
Matilda Joslyn Gage was raised in an Abolitionist home that was a stop on the Underground Railroad. A mother of four, she was a founding member of the National Woman Suffrage Association along with Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Her life's work was the struggle for the complete liberation of women. Carved on her gravestone are the words she lived by: "There is a word sweeter than Mother, Home or Heaven; that word is Liberty."
Originally published in 1893, this book is a major feminist work of the Nineteenth Century that identifies the sources of women's oppression as the church and its offspring, the state. Alarmed by the conservative religious movement of the time that tried to amend the Constitution to declare the U.S. a Christian state, Gage wrote this book to articulate her views that christianity was the oppressor of women.
In the first chapter called The Matriarchate, the author tells of the rights women had in pagan pre-christian times. She talks of the Mother-rule, that preceded Patriarchy. She then shows that christianity from its beginning has worked to undermine women's rights.
The following seven chapters outline the oppression of women in the west and its sources in first the church, and later in the state that developed its ruling principles from canon law. These chapters deal with Celibacy, Canon Law, Marquette (a term that Gage uses for jus primae noctis, the right of lords to the sexual favors of their peasant women), Witchcraft, Wives, Polygamy, and Work. These chapters are filled with examples from history as well as the contemporary 19th century. The documented examples of women's oppression at the hands of ministers of the church and the law in this section are an impressive collection that makes this book a valuable source for feminist herstory.
In the last two chapters, Gage looks at the church of her day and shows that it is still bogged down in the same dogma of women's oppression. She predicts a great revolution which will liberate women and give them equal rights with men in both religion and society. I am sure the women's movement of the 1970s with its emphasis on women's spirituality and the Equal Rights Amendment would have convinced her that she was right.
October 22, 2010
Insanely good and a must read for women especcially.
July 6, 2025
Simply awesome! I have learned more history from Matilda, Howard Zinn, Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz and Gerald Horne than I ever did in school or taking my family to visit countless battlefields and memorials in their growing years. I first 'met' Matilda at the National Women's Hall of Fame while perusing the pictures of historically prominent women in the lobby a few years ago. Under her photo was the quote "Let no church or government determine your judgement." It was like meeting a soul-mate.
That statement congealed all that my reading and experience were leading me to conclude. She is a timeless heroine not only for women, but also for blacks and Native Americans based on her and her family's making their homes stops on the Underground Railroad; her experience accompanying her physician father as he treated Native Americans in their communities in central New York. The structure of their communities showed her that there was a better social culture for women and she championed it her whole life through, so much so that she was made an honorary member of the Wolf Clan of the Mohawk Tribe.
The fact that this book was banned in the U.S. by those who want to keep women in their social and religious diminishment attests to her relevance in our time. Her 200th birthday, on March 24, 2026
should be celebrated nationally and especially in the state of her birth and life's activities.
That statement congealed all that my reading and experience were leading me to conclude. She is a timeless heroine not only for women, but also for blacks and Native Americans based on her and her family's making their homes stops on the Underground Railroad; her experience accompanying her physician father as he treated Native Americans in their communities in central New York. The structure of their communities showed her that there was a better social culture for women and she championed it her whole life through, so much so that she was made an honorary member of the Wolf Clan of the Mohawk Tribe.
The fact that this book was banned in the U.S. by those who want to keep women in their social and religious diminishment attests to her relevance in our time. Her 200th birthday, on March 24, 2026
should be celebrated nationally and especially in the state of her birth and life's activities.
Want to Read
October 2, 2012Quote from Matilda in 1881: Believing this country to be a political and not a religious organisation ... the editor of the NATIONAL CITIZEN will use all her influence of voice and pen against "Sabbath Laws", the uses of the "Bible in School", and pre-eminently against an amendment which shall introduce "God in the Constitution."
—(Reference: "God in the Constitution", page 2)
Gage was an avid opponent of the various Christian churches, and she strongly supported the separation of church and state, believing "that the greatest injury to the world has arisen from theological laws – from a union of Church and State".
The more things change, the more things stay the same.
She was a suffragette, abolitionist, activist for Native American rights, a freethinker, and the mother-in-law of L. Frank Baum.
What is different is that in that age, abortion was seen as a way men had of controlling women and what offspring they produced, of course which a man owned - yes, he owned his children and could do whatever he liked to them.
Gage is one of my heroes, along with Margaret Fuller and Emma Darwin, all women far ahead of their times.
—(Reference: "God in the Constitution", page 2)
Gage was an avid opponent of the various Christian churches, and she strongly supported the separation of church and state, believing "that the greatest injury to the world has arisen from theological laws – from a union of Church and State".
The more things change, the more things stay the same.
She was a suffragette, abolitionist, activist for Native American rights, a freethinker, and the mother-in-law of L. Frank Baum.
What is different is that in that age, abortion was seen as a way men had of controlling women and what offspring they produced, of course which a man owned - yes, he owned his children and could do whatever he liked to them.
Gage is one of my heroes, along with Margaret Fuller and Emma Darwin, all women far ahead of their times.
June 6, 2013
I loved all the lessons of "Herstory" to be read here. What an under rated pioneer for women, Matilda was and no one even seems to know. A friend of mine gave me this fine copy. I have difficulty loaning it. Although, I am semi renting it out. People loan me five of their faves for this one. Because I enjoyed it so.
She really knew her church history. At times I think she may be trying to tell off the male chauvinist pics of the passed centuries. The way she worded her essays, just seem a bit spiteful and mouthy. Not like the patriarchy of that time didn't need it. There should be ten stars for this great book.
She really knew her church history. At times I think she may be trying to tell off the male chauvinist pics of the passed centuries. The way she worded her essays, just seem a bit spiteful and mouthy. Not like the patriarchy of that time didn't need it. There should be ten stars for this great book.
April 9, 2023
An amazing book which does an in-depth analysis of how Christianity has since its inception promoted patriarchy and its demeaning of women, throughout history. Citing women as evil and less than human. The knowledge researched by the author has been lost to future women and needs to be reclaimed.
July 14, 2023
What a stellar, stellar read. Gage needs to join the lists of useful intellectuals of her period for EVERY class! Her feminist critique of coercion and brutality towards women was compounded and explosive.
PROPS to her for her expansive web of sources, from a variety of intellectual disciplines. I would expect such acuteness in the feminist tradition! With that being said, there was DEFINITELY some horrific and spoiled wording of some crucial groups. This book came out in 1892, so using that awareness in mind we can criticize her flaws, while still pointing out the phenomenal work she did to involve and regard oppressed women everywhere with defense. A lot of her resource pulling was also sloppy, that should be noted; lots of vague reference in the dense paragraphs of text.
Her Matriarchate framework, explaining the consequences of the alternate system is very useful and fascinating when looking back through history. SOCIETIES RAN BY WOMEN WERE ALL OVER THE WORLD! ALL OVER! Gage helps us keep this in mind.
My fav chapter was Women and Work (an EXQUISITE class analysis of the time, but slightly lacking a complete argument in defense of black women in America), my least fav chapter was that on Polygamy. I wish it would’ve just been factored into the chapter before it, I felt it would’ve felt more precise if those were put together.
AND DEFENSE OF EDUCATION AW YEA! Legislation won’t fix the world, education will. I wish this was more of a known book.
PROPS to her for her expansive web of sources, from a variety of intellectual disciplines. I would expect such acuteness in the feminist tradition! With that being said, there was DEFINITELY some horrific and spoiled wording of some crucial groups. This book came out in 1892, so using that awareness in mind we can criticize her flaws, while still pointing out the phenomenal work she did to involve and regard oppressed women everywhere with defense. A lot of her resource pulling was also sloppy, that should be noted; lots of vague reference in the dense paragraphs of text.
Her Matriarchate framework, explaining the consequences of the alternate system is very useful and fascinating when looking back through history. SOCIETIES RAN BY WOMEN WERE ALL OVER THE WORLD! ALL OVER! Gage helps us keep this in mind.
My fav chapter was Women and Work (an EXQUISITE class analysis of the time, but slightly lacking a complete argument in defense of black women in America), my least fav chapter was that on Polygamy. I wish it would’ve just been factored into the chapter before it, I felt it would’ve felt more precise if those were put together.
AND DEFENSE OF EDUCATION AW YEA! Legislation won’t fix the world, education will. I wish this was more of a known book.
April 30, 2023
Although I've read and heard a fair amount about her, this is the first thing Gage wrote that I've read in its entirety. It's divided into different sections describing means of legal prejudice against women enacted by the church and governments. It's a little dry, but also has a large amount of righteous fury. She also gives examples of pre-Christian societies in which women had more rights, although I think they might be cherry picked to some extent; we know that the classical Greeks had goddesses and priestesses they revered, but they were still pretty misogynistic overall. Even in Christianity, you have some of Jesus' closest companions being women, but none of them getting to be disciples; and Paul acknowledging female church leaders while also saying women should keep quiet in church. Christianity was certainly not the first patriarchal religion, but it was obviously the most prominent at the time. While there have been some major advantages in women's rights, it's telling that people are still using religion as an excuse for subjugating women. Gage also wrote about accusations of witchcraft being a way to persecute women, and while there were some men who were executed for that, it was obviously women who received the brunt of it.
March 29, 2025
"The world has seemingly awaited the advent of heroic souls who once again should dare all things for the truth. The woman who possesses love for her sex, for the world, for truth, justice and right, will not hesitate to place herself upon record as opposed to falsehood, no matter under what guise of age or holiness it appears."
This book was a little slow to start, but it did pick up the pace around Chapter 3. It has been a very enlightening book for me to read. Matilda Joslyn Gage was a woman necessary for her time as well as ahead of it! She was a foremother of Women’s Lib in the 1970s and a staunch activist for Women’s Suffrage in the late 19th century.
Despite the book being written and published in the early 1890s, I truly felt as if the book was written and published a few years ago; both a sad and scary thought. The relationship between the Church and the State throughout the centuries and their outlook of Woman is one that should anger all, men and women alike. These two entities should not be inclusive of one another.
Matilda Joslyn Gage has definitely made a lasting impression on me, and I will be looking into reading her other books in the future!!
This book was a little slow to start, but it did pick up the pace around Chapter 3. It has been a very enlightening book for me to read. Matilda Joslyn Gage was a woman necessary for her time as well as ahead of it! She was a foremother of Women’s Lib in the 1970s and a staunch activist for Women’s Suffrage in the late 19th century.
Despite the book being written and published in the early 1890s, I truly felt as if the book was written and published a few years ago; both a sad and scary thought. The relationship between the Church and the State throughout the centuries and their outlook of Woman is one that should anger all, men and women alike. These two entities should not be inclusive of one another.
Matilda Joslyn Gage has definitely made a lasting impression on me, and I will be looking into reading her other books in the future!!
June 1, 2022
19th Century Feminist Manifesto
The book is historically important if you are studying the history of the feminist movement. As a stand alone, it reads like a 19th Century philosophical book and that’s not the easiest or most enjoyable read. If this is a topic of interest, read the book for author’s perspective on the influence that men, religion and government had holding women back through history.
The book is historically important if you are studying the history of the feminist movement. As a stand alone, it reads like a 19th Century philosophical book and that’s not the easiest or most enjoyable read. If this is a topic of interest, read the book for author’s perspective on the influence that men, religion and government had holding women back through history.
October 24, 2021
Very interesting read, of course some information is very old and outdated, but the case for the mistreatment of women by religions and governments internationally is well proven. Found a lot of the information, case studies, and article experts, very interesting for its time and quite a feast majority of the information is still relevant today.
July 16, 2025
A scathing, well-deserved critique of the Christian Church's treatment of woman over the centuries. Many arguments from the 1890s are still relevant today.
The only reason I didn't give the book 5 stars is because I found some of the arguments repetitive and tedious. This is a reflection of me as a reader, not the quality and skill of the author.
The only reason I didn't give the book 5 stars is because I found some of the arguments repetitive and tedious. This is a reflection of me as a reader, not the quality and skill of the author.
June 18, 2021
Brilliant.
August 4, 2024
I loved this book a lot that I reed it 3 times in a year.... I highly recommend it
July 20, 2025
Considering when this was written (1893), this is an amazing synthesis of information.
Read
May 19, 2026Though dated on intersectionality. This was a very eye opening book
Want to Read
April 29, 2011not in worldcat! get this
April 27, 2017
Interesting but quite outdated in some ways.
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