Teorías clásicas del desarrollo económico

The Quaker movement, as Levy has recognised, was the first to view egalitarian domestic life as a part of its religion.175 _{It is clear from the evidence presented}

here, that there was an unusual congruence between the spheres of religion and everyday life for early Friends. This chapter has explored the identities of female Friends as wives and mothers, and the extent to which both ministering

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and non-ministering women’s domestic lives were shaped by their commitment to the movement.

Whilst women’s roles within the household found many parallels within wider society, especially in the Puritan tradition, Quaker culture encouraged a re-envisioning of domestic relationships in a number of important ways. This can be seen through the emphasis Friends placed on the equality of women within the marriage partnership, whether as instructors of their children, religious teachers, or missionaries. One element of Friends’ lives that was especially distinctive was their belief that spiritual labour authorised ministers to cede domestic responsibilities to their spouses. This meant that a recognised place was provided for women beyond their function within the family. However, unlike a Catholic nun or a Baptist or Methodist Mother in Israel, a Quaker woman who dedicated herself to divine service did not have to renounce marriage or motherhood. Celibacy was not a prerequisite for an active ministerial career, and familial duties were viewed as equally important to their ministerial vocations.

These women’s careers clearly helped them to attain a position of authority within the marital relationship. Unlike their non-Quaker contemporaries, who were responsible for the religious instruction of the family only in their husbands’ absence, a Quaker Mother in Israel would often take primary responsibility for the spiritual life of the household. The evidence of status accruing to ministers through their careful management of their domestic relationships underlines the reciprocal relationship between women’s public and private work. Their extant spiritual autobiographies and correspondence highlight the ways in which women’s household work defined

their ministerial experiences and also, conversely, how their status as ministers enhanced, rather than undermined, their position within the family.

Even those women who did not undertake ‘gospel service’ could achieve a recognised position as spiritual leaders. As section three demonstrated, there is a strong case for exploring the role of non-ministering female Friends whose lives were disturbed by persecution and interrupted by their husbands’ religious commitments. For Quaker housewives, accepting their husbands’ missionary service was an important aspect of a marital relationship in which both parties perceived domestic responsibilities as part of their joint spiritual mission. The remarkable accounts of these women give us a sense of the key role that they played, vital for the survival of the early Quaker movement. Not only did they give their husbands practical and material support, they also provided a crucial point through which their spouses could maintain contact with both the household and local community. Domesticity was at the heart of the Quaker faith and, as we have seen, women were able to play multiple roles throughout their lifetimes.176 _{To ignore these women who did not die or leave a}

written account of their experiences is to overlook the majority of female Friends whose lives were deeply affected by their adherence to the faith and whose physical, financial, moral, and emotional support unequivocally contributed towards the survival of movement.

In a maturing Society, with a leadership that emphasised the centrality of families to Quaker morality, women enjoyed a significant position, as mothers of a future generation of believers. In the post-Restoration years, particularly

176 _{This is a theme that Laurel Ulrich Thatcher explores in depth in her study of Colonial Women} in Good Wives.

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within the American colonies, emphasis was increasingly placed upon the correct rearing of Quaker children to ensure its survival. As motherhood became a sacred, specialised calling, some non-itinerant women were able to achieve high status within the transatlantic community. The huge number of diaries, dying words, and memorials of these women, whose lives were distinguished primarilyby service to their families, attests to the determination of early Friends to memorialise exemplary wives and mothers who had sustained the movement through labour within the household and not in wider public service.

The Quaker ‘home-maker’ as much as the traveller had a crucial role in ensuring the continuity of domestic piety and the survival of the movement for future generations. This continuity cannot be gleaned solely from the journals and spiritual autobiographies of Quaker women, on which so many accounts of their position have relied. It must also be sought in the correspondence and communication networks which developed within and between families across the Atlantic world of Quakerism. The next chapter expands further on the status of the non-itinerant woman within the wider Quaker community, assessing the roles available to her within the separate Women’s Meetings. As we shall see, this was another aspect of female Friends’ lives that was determined by their domestic identities. Their stable position within the local Quaker community and their authority as religious instructors, nurturers, and teachers within the household enabled many such ‘ordinary’ women to acquire a recognised public status within the ‘household of faith’.