What Role Did Women Play In Puritan Religion

There are many controversies about the roles of women when the first forms of the Puritan religion started making its way to the new found America. It seemed that women were always subjected to being subordinate to men anywhere in the world, but especially in the newly founded American Puritan religion that was being derived from the first form of Puritan religion found in Europe. Women were supposed to happily submit to their husband’s wants and desires because that is what God, whom they base their religion from, set in law for them. Not only were they deemed subordinate to all men, but they were also not allowed to teach the word of god because men were viewed as closer to god than women. In Ben Barker-Benfield’s document, “Anne Hutchinson

and the Puritan Attitude towards Women,” it argues why Anne Hutchinson was a threat to the government of the Puritans, which was run by all men, and why it was unacceptable for her to be “preaching” not only to women, but also to men. By comparing this document to, “Puritan Family Law: The Case of John Porter, Jr.”, “The Examination of Anne Hutchinson”, and “Benjamin Wadsworth, The Obligations of a Wife” one would assume that because men were closer with God than women and that women were subjected to subordination to men that men saw women as a threat to their authority because they possessed more power than they knew.

Ben Barker-Benfield’s document shows that Anne Hutchinson and other women that rebelled as she did by “preaching” about covenants of grace instead of covenants of works may have had more power than they thought they had because of the sexual threat that women imposed by being able to gather many followers of her new found religion, Hutchinsonian, and keep faithful followers. Barker-Benfield also makes sure to show how the Puritan religion relied on the men having power because of their covenant with God. During Anne Hutchinson’s trial everyone that was interrogating her was male because they were the head of the church, which was in charge of the community, and the men in charge only voted other males to be head of the community because this is how they expressed their relationship with God. In, “The Examination of Anne Hutchinson” the men of the church did not care that Hutchinson was preaching something wrong they only cared

when they found out that she was preaching to men, and the men were starting to accept and follow what she was saying. After the council found that out the trial seemed to go down from there ending with her being banished. Because the council did not show interest until they heard of the male Hutchinsonians proves that they only cared of the influence that women could have over men, because they did in fact have a way to empower themselves enough to get the attention of men and with the help of men the Hutchinsonian religion could become authoritative over the Puritan religion. Barker-Benfield states that, “All creatures, including women ‘had access to God only through their superior, man.’” With men in the Hutchinsonian religion they would finally have a way to consult with God and figure out if what the Puritan religion is teaching is right or if what the Hutchinsonian religion is teaching is right. Assuming that the Puritan men are using the “closer relationship” with God to their advantage to make women subordinate to them, the Puritan men do not want any of the women finding this out, so if the women get in contact with God then they can start a rebellion causing a major threat to the authority over women that the men have. The roles of Puritan women would then change drastically because, “The Obligation of a Wife” would no longer be established among the women.
Another point to show that women have more authority than they know is the fact that men view themselves as “the bride” to god by metaphorically thinking of themselves as women.

If the men have to view themselves as women in order to show their relationship with God, then Puritan women might just have a closer relationship with God then they have been taught by the Puritan men. By making the women submissive to them they are also being able to portray themselves in a “God like” manner because the way the Puritan men view their relationship with God by being submissive to him. “They [Puritan men] were dependent on women for their own model of feminine behavior…,” says Barker-Benfield. The Puritan men needed women to act feminine because without this they would have no way to portray how they have to seem in their relationship with God to be able to keep their covenant with God and without this they would have no reason to make women submissive to

them.
An example of when a women had more power over a man was in the document, “Puritan Family Law: The Case of John Porter, Jr.,” when a mother saved the life of her son by pleading with the judge. The law stated that any children over the age of sixteen that did not obey their mother and father should be put to death. The son had caused a lot of damage to his parents’ property and caused a lot of debt to his father, and he refused to stop acting rebellious. His father took him to court and wanted justice, but the mother begged them not to. According to Barker-Benfield, fathers were the head of the household and had say over everything, but because they did not get justice like the father had asked proves that women were given some amount of authority. Some would argue that this was all out of mercy, but why would they make this a law if they were not going to abide by it, and give in to everyone’s pleading, unless of course, this women did have authority.
Unlike Barker-Benfield, most of the primary documents did not show any authority related to women except the one about John Porter Jr. During Barker-Benfield’s argument of why men were supposed to have the authority, he also made it clear that though they were supposed to have the authority women might have had more authority than they thought they had. Women seemed to have their own ways to get what they wanted, but because men were so scared of what they could do they had to put a stop to it before it progressed.