Mary Stocks Quotes
It is clearly absurd that it should be possible for a woman to qualify as a saint with direct access to the Almighty while she may not qualify as a curate.
Mary Stocks, 1891-1975, British Politician, Writer and Broadcaster, Still More Commonplace
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
Jorge Mario Bergoglio
The CAA was the Civil Aeronautics Administration, the forerunner to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
See {592434} for more on ‘honor killings’ where male relatives kill females who have been accused of sexual activity. This is perceived to dishonor the family by many Muslims. She was responding to an Egyptian judge who was arguing that men who commit honor killings should not be punished to harshly as the men were in great emotional states at the time because they were so upset.
This quotation is an example of how even sophisticated institutions and leaders were plagued by various stereotypes. Dean Sperry as well as many other members of the clergy actually believed that women would not go to divinity school because they were interested in the theology but because they were looking to marry a minister. When the dean told the trustees that he had “no wisdom on this matter” is was one of the great understatements in the history of quotations. What is more ironic is that the Dean was considered very liberal having admitted Catholics, Nazarenes, and Adventists.
Within Christianity there has been a continual debate regarding a woman’s proper role in society in general and in church affairs in particular. This quotation is often used to justify a husband’s dominant role over the wife. Also it supports those who object to women in the ministry or the priesthood. See {587062}. It is useful to note that much of Islam which preaches a similar view of females, probably learned it from Christianity which preceded Islam by almost 600 years.
The editorial was in support of women’s suffrage—the right to vote which at the time women did not have in Britain. Women were very active in protests and demonstrations. Tactics sometimes involved civil disobedience and chaining themselves to public buildings. It was the civil disobedience and disruptions that the newspaper referred to as the “follies and excesses.” In retrospect today, it is amazing how threatened the society felt and how they reacted to the “threat” of females voting. It does however give us a perspective on those contemporary societies which restrict women’s voting rights.
Although she was living proof of a woman’s ability to accomplish what most men could not, she was always publicly differential to men and their sexism. Although she opposed women voting in Parliamentary elections, she did believe that women should vote in local elections where the understood the issues much better.
Scientist and double Nobel Prize winner, Marie Curie, 1867-1934, was rejected for membership at the French Académie des Sciences. She never allowed her name to be submitted again and for years refused to allow her work to be published by the Académie.
Despite this pronouncement which kept Caliphs from being female, modern Islamic states (Pakistan, Indonesia) have had female Presidents.
In one of the earliest claims that women should be allowed to preach, she made a theological argument and then challenged the male theologians to better her arguments. Although she was very demur, intellectually and theologically she “took it right at them.” Such intellectual aggression by women was virtually unheard of.
The speaking to which she was referring was Christian Religious preaching by women. At the time it was considered by most Christians to be sacrilegious for women to preach. This came down from the orthodox Jewish tradition, and there are several passages in the New Testament where the Apostles, who were Jews themselves were echoing the religious tradition. This then took on a meaning that went beyond tradition as in Judaism. Margaret Fox wrote this essay which was a completely theological defense of a woman’s right – indeed obligation—to preach. Theologically, there are many Christian churches for whom her argument would be too radical—even in modern times. However, in the middle of the 17th century to most male clerics, this was so unfathomable that they did not even deign to refute her theological arguments. Meanwhile, the Quakers began to accept women in theological positions of influence—for ahead of most other Christian and Jewish sects. See {619836} and {619837} for quotations from the essay itself.
Billinghurst was physically handicapped without the use of her legs. She protested and marched in protest parades using a hand propelled tricycle which the police sometimes dumped her out of and left her immobile in alleys.
Mary Danvers Stocks, Baroness Stocks was a British writer. She was closely associated with the Strachey, the Wedgwood and the Ricardo families. Her family was deeply involved in changes in the Victorian Era and Stocks herself was deeply involved in women's suffrage, the welfare state, and other aspects of social work.
