Margaret Fell

The reading about Margaret Fell takes an interesting stance on women and their history of literacy. I had no idea that religion was the main reason that women were taught to read and right or that it led to their oral rhetoric. In a way Fell is portrayed as a Martin Luther King for women. She was to literacy among women as he was to freedom for African-Americans. In the section about her it describes that she was deeply religious and that she used that religion to speak publicly and write. This was severely frowned upon in her time and women were seen as people who should not be heard. At least this is one instance where I can say religion led to something good. It's impressive that she continued to still write and speak while being ridiculed and harassed by the public. The last thing that would be on my mind if someone was trying to take my home and land is writing religious works. In short what I learned was women were severely illiterate before the spread of Christianity. After the religion spread the fact that women had to read the bible lead to them ultimately being educated and the number of women that could sign their name jumped way up. The text also says that the spreading of religion by women is what gave them the opportunity to use their rhetoric publicly while debating religion or teaching.