Early Quaker Women in Ministry

Early Quaker Women in Ministry

The Account of the Travels, Sufferings, and Persecutions of Barbara Blaugdone gives us an insight into the traveling ministry of the work’s namesake, Barbara Blaugdone, the Quaker woman who persevered through trial after trial to come out on top. As she says, “I can speak it to the glory of God, he never moved me to any thing, but that he gave me Power to perform it” (Blaugdone 8). In other words, God gave Blaugdone no trial that He did not also give her the power to overcome. However, Blaugdone was only one of many Quaker women to minister and share the Truth that the Quakers so loved. While the majority of active Quaker ministers were men (Trevett 70), women in the Quaker movement enjoyed opportunities to minister, both privately and publicly, while sharing in many of the trials of their male counterparts.

Much of what the Quakers considered ministry was less visible to the general public. “For Quakers, [ministry] encompassed not just preaching, prophecy, and other overtly ‘religious’ activity, but also any witnessing to the faith, be it in the home, the marketplace or workplace…. An example had to be set in all those places” (58). Many Quaker women performed more feminine tasks in addition to preaching and teaching (43). For example, they saw to the poor and needy, with extra care given to less fortunate Quakers (58). Other women set an example to public officials by standing alongside their husbands in demonstration of their faith (60). When imprisoned, which happened often enough to Quaker men and women alike, these stalwart, godly people continued to share their faith with those around them (Bauman 67). Still other women followed the example of the great early Quaker leader Margaret Fell, who “ensured . . . that no ministering Friend lacked coat, stocking, or shoes,” and provided for Friends on the road. (Trevett 56). When “called”, though, Quaker women opted to minister in a more public fashion.

To the Quakers, a woman in a public ministry role was the fulfillment of God’s Will as opposed to the disobedience of divine directive. They believed that ministers “were called and served by the ability God gave them, [and] that women were equally eligible to serve in the ministry” (Bauman 36). This philosophy directly opposed a long-observed teaching from 1 Timothy 2:11-12, “Let the woman learn in silence, with all subjection.