Religious fervour led to gender role switch

In the late 18^th century a bizarre change took place in the social and religious roles of men and women, a change that lasted until the mid-20^th century and from which we have still not shaken off the consequences.

It was a time of enormous evangelical enthusiasm on both sides of the Atlantic and a time of great moral fervour as churches strove to ‘save sinners from hell’ through repentance and clean living.

But what happened in about 1800 was that men began to be seen as degenerate, feckless, morally weak and easy prey to temptations of all kinds, notably drinking, gambling, swearing and all forms of sexual sin (the prurience of contemporary publications spared their readers’ blushes by omitting details)

Women, by contrast, suddenly became fragile flowers whose femininity had to be protected and whose natural inclination was towards piety and holy living. This was a complete turnaround, because for the previous three or four hundred years women had been seen as a threat to domestic stability. Femininity was the great weakness that the man of the household had to control, to ensure that wayward females were kept under control.

The causes of this sudden change are complex, but are basically to do with the growing evangelical movement. The problem was that if piety was the hallmark of femininity, as evangelicals declared to be the case, then what of masculinity? Various attempts were made during the century to make men more pious, sometimes working in opposite directions.

For instance, the perception was that men were ‘rough’. They needed to be ‘feminised’ so that they would be more susceptible to conversion. Much ink and hot air was used up pursuing this idea. It couldn’t start too soon - mothers were expected to take a leading role in ensuring their young sons were brought up to admire and practise the feminine virtues.

Linked with this view, that the male had an innate difficulty in becoming pious, was the belief that maleness lay at the root of all social woes, from crime to the desperately poor living conditions of factory workers

Other attempts to help men ‘find Christ’ took a different approach and tried to develop what became known as muscular Christianity. Military-style organisations were created to channel the developing masculinity of boys into sport and other wholesome physical activities that would develop mind and spirit in the right way.

But the evangelical movement always remained ambivalent about the military and sport. Soldiers were particularly hard to convert and sport, being rough, could lead young men in the wrong direction rather than the right one.

And so it went on, well into the 20^th century. We are now a couple of generations further on, but who can say how much the after-effects of that remarkable century and a half of evangelical fervour still colour our thinking about sex and religion.

Reference: The Death of Christian Britain by Callum G Brown (2001)