Women and Religion in England: 1500-1720

Patricia Crawford argues that religion in the early modern period cannot be understood without a perception of the gendered nature of its beliefs, institutions and language. The book focuses on women and their apprehensions of God in early modern England. Contemporary religious ideology reinforced the assumption that women were inferior to men but, as Patricia Crawford shows, it was possible for some women to transcend these beliefs and profoundly influence history within a social structure which was not of their making. The book is organized around three broad themes: the role of women in the religious upheaval of the Reformation, civil wars and Commonwealth; the significance of religion to contemporary women, and the range of their practices and beliefs; and the role of gender in the period.