This book covers new ground in its focus on the Anglican Church congresses 1861-1938 as a public space in which the views of notable women were widely disseminated. It celebrates the contribution made by women to public life and discourse on womanhood as platform speakers, and commemorates the presence of the large numbers of women who joined congresses as audience members.

Original research draws on extensive primary sources from official records, diaries and the press to capture women’s views and voices and evoke congress as a communicative social space and a window on to topical affairs. Women and the Anglican Church Congress examines roles for women in the Church and reflects on how women with a sense of vocation negotiated contemporary attitudes to their roles and spirituality. The book also explores how women’s secular aspirations towards citizenship in the context of poverty, work, temperance, eugenics, class and suffrage played out at congress.