Harriet Catherine Egerton's Interpretation of Deborah
Although Egerton acknowledged biblical prophetess, such as Deborah she asserted that women ought not to speak in the public assembly because she of the Apostle rule[1] which reads, “Let your women keep silence in the churches.” Her stance is revealed when she responds to the question about whether women would worship and prophecy in public in her 1832 writings of the Epistles[2]. She considered Deborah’s case to be of extraordinary inspiration, but went on to say it did not warrant an infraction of the Apostle rule. Egerton imagines a humble spiritual leader in Deborah who is not declaring battle before many but rather communicating her vision discretely. Egerton believed that woman’s private teaching is acceptable and their capabilities made them perfectly suited to give good counsel to their husbands in private and ensure success for the man in the public sphere. Egerton reveals that she believes God has appointed men as role models and leaders and for women to forget their place is to dishonor the man who God has appointed[3].
At the time when Egerton was writing her 1832 piece ‘Question's on St Paul's Epistles with Practical and Explanatory Observations’ there was a significant change in attitudes toward women during this period. A change that had an impact on their roles both within and outside the home. Women were questioning some fundamental teachings of the established church of England and Egerton was trying to keep them in line with the teachings of the church. It was a time of intense political change because of the Great Reform Act of 1832 which was set into motion by a movement to extend the rights of religious minorities. The Reform brought forth a new source of order in politics, a two-party system built around religious cleavages[4]. A two party system was forming with conservatives (staunchest defenders of the established Church of England) and liberals (Protestants and non-conformists). Egerton had to choose her words carefully in order to remain politically aligned with the church.
The household was a basic unit combining production and consumption, and woman occupied a central role in this economy. As industrialization proceeded many women's tasks were removed from the household into large factories, separating the processes of production and consumption. Overriding these institutional changes, however, was a major change in attitudes toward women, emphasizing a "feminine mystique" which defined the female role in sentimental terms and supported the total separation of men's and women's economic and social role. At the center of woman's status was her duty of moral guardianship. Sentimentality put her on a pedestal and constructed its base of purity and moral superiority. Woman's role in protecting the home and making it an island of quiet, a haven of purity in man's rough world of affairs.
Women's religious activity quickened markedly between 1790 and 1840, taking on quite new though not unprecedented forms as sentimental piety became a great force in bringing women into organized religious enterprises. During the various religious awakenings or revivals that occurred in the late 18th and early 19th centuries women were to a greater extent than men the subjects of conversion[5]. Their emotional enthusiasm contributed significantly to the quality of revival movements. Moving still further away from their strictly domestic activities during the 1830s, yet still invoking woman's moral responsibilities, a small number of New England women participated actively in reform work, attempting through agitation and pressure to bring about social change. During the 1830s another major non-domestic opportunity opened for women, the profession of school teaching. While women had taught in "dame schools" during the colonial period and in district schools after 1800, there was no regularity or professionalism in their employment. One of the major aims of the reformers who attacked education practices during the 1820s and '30s was the improvement of instruction, and to this end the reformers determined to replace men with women teachers. Typically in 1835 men taught district schools in winter when older boys attended, leaving summer schools and younger pupils to women instructors.
The changes happening around Harriet Catherine Egerton were contradictory to the Apostle rule she believed in. The Apostle Paul laid it down as a general rule that women must not be allowed to speak in the public congregation or assume office as teachers and yet at the time this was becoming increasingly common. Egerton had to fight through her literary works to ensure that order was restored.
[1] Apostle rule found in 1 Corinthians 14.34
[2] Egerton, Harriet Catherine. 1832. Question's on St Paul's Epistles with Practical and Explanatory Observations. London: Holdsworth and Ball
[3] Egerton, Harriet Catherine. 1832. Question's on St Paul's Epistles with Practical and Explanatory Observations. London: Holdsworth and Ball
[4] Ertman, Thomas. 2010. "The Great Reform Act of 1832 and Britain Democratization." SAGE Comparative Pollitical Studies 11.
[5] Mielder, Keith. n.d. "Aspects of the Changing Status of New England Women, 1790-1840." Teach US Histoty. Accessed December 13, 2015. http://www.teachushistory.org/detocqueville-visit-united-states/articles/aspects-changing-status-new-england-women.