A ‘Feminist Conspiracy’: Maude Royden, women's ministry and the British press, 1916–1921

Abstract

This article examines Maude Royden's rise to fame as a preacher through a detailed consideration of three episodes: the National Mission of 1916, her Congregational City Temple years between 1917 and 1920, and the St Botolph's affair of 1919 and 1921. It argues that Royden's life illustrates the constellation of ideological connections between feminism, suffrage and women's ordination and explores the way in which these controversial issues were negotiated by individual churchmen through the religious and popular press. Conflicting clergy reactions to her radical religious activism are discussed to highlight the deep divisions and tensions within Anglican ecclesiastical patriarchy.