"Constrained by Zeal": Women in Mid-NineteenthCentury Nonconformist Churches

In the nineteenth century, women discovered that nonconformist churches provided a third, intermediate sphere between private and public life in which they could find a variety of roles. Churches provided a supportive environment where, as "Angels out of the House" they found an extension of their role in the home. In some cases, however, they clearly moved beyond that to the public sphere. Women taught in Sunday schools, visited the poor and sick, distributed tracts, were instrumental in fundraising, led Methodist class meetings, prayed with other women, and some even preached. Despite the importance of women within Nonconformity, and the significance of religion in many women's lives, few historians of either Nonconformity or women's history have concentrated on women's lives within these churches. This paper seeks to add to our limited knowledge of their activities within the "intermediate sphere" in four denominations.