When Religious Freedom Was a Feminist Issue Or What Elizabeth Cady Stanton Would Have to Say to Kim Davis by Kathi Kern

Monday, November 16, 2015

In this talk Professor Kathi Kern will use the recent case of Kim Davis, the Rowan County, Kentucky, clerk who defied a federal court order to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, to explore the changing meaning of “Religious Freedom” in American history.  Kern will highlight the efforts of nineteenth-century feminist, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, to rally feminists around the cause of “religious freedom,” a key component of women’s emancipation and gender equality.  

This talk is presented in conjunction with the Mellon Graduate Seminar, "Sex of the Spirit: Desire and Deity in the History of American Religion."