Censored 100 years ago by the religious right and the increasingly conservative woman suffrage movement, this pioneering 1893 work by Matilda Joslyn Gage remains controversial today. Woman, Church and State presents a provocative study of the institutions Gage believed were at the root of women’s suppression. An afterward by Gage scholar Sally Roesch Wagner tells the remarkable story of the book’s reception–then and now. A feminist classic.  Introduction by Sally Roesch Wagner.

Edited reprint of Matilda Joslyn Gage’s presidential speech at the founding convention of the Woman’s National Liberal Union, the organization she started in 1890 to ensure the separation of church and state. This speech is Gage’s exhilarating reply to those who would extend their religious authority beyond their houses of worship. With an introduction by Sally Roesch Wagner. Part of the four-book Reader Series published by the Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation that examines different aspects of Gage’s life and work.

Author: Matilda Joslyn Gage

Format: Paperback; 26 pp

Publisher: The Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation

This clarion call to action, assembled by Stanton and a committee of prominent feminists,  consists of a book-by-book examination of the Bible, placing events in their historical context, interpreting passages as both allegory and fact, and comparing them with the myths of other cultures. Over a century later, it endures as an extraordinary document because of the questions it addresses, the topics it covers, and the still-resonant sincerity of its righteous indignation.