SOURCE: "Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Reformer to Revolutionary: A Theological Trajectory," in Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Vol. LXII, No. 3, Fall, 1994, pp. 673-97.

In the following essay, Stevenson-Moessner traces the evolution of Stanton's views on women in Christianity.

When she was young, Elizabeth Cady Stanton was a member of the Presbyterian Girls' Club. For one project, she and the others saved pennies by baking, sewing, brewing and stewing things to pay for the education of a man attending Auburn Theological Seminary. After graduation, they assisted him by buying a new black suit along with silk hat and cane; then, they were influential in getting him an invitation to preach in their congregation. For his text, he chose I Timothy 2:21: "But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority of the man, but to be in silence." In silence and in shock, the girls left...