A limited role for women in the Fellowship of Southern Churchmen
While women were not excluded from the Fellowship of Southern Churchmen, they did not play a large role, Burgess remembers.
Citing this Excerpt
Oral History Interview with David Burgess, August 12, 1983. Interview F-0006. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) in the Southern Oral History Program Collection, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Full Text of the Excerpt
- DALLAS BLANCHARD:
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What role did women play in the fellowship other than
Nell?
- DAVID BURGESS:
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Well, I don't think that they appeared in the masthead. But
all of the married people that I knew of this group, it was a one to one
equal relationship in the marriage. And the women's rights in
the modern sence of the feminist movement had not come into bloom yet.
But there was nothing paternalistic about the fellowship conferences.
This leadership was there but the women participated. They brought their
kids, and I brought my kids. And you didn't have the feeling
that this was a paternalistic outfit at all. I am trying to think of
other women, but don't come to mind. Maybe. But, Alice was
very powerful in relation to Buck. I know this. Nell was never married.
Mrs. Cowan was a very lovely person. Jean Smathers wife was also. So you
are dealing with a good marriage situation therefore. But in fairness,
there were very few women that did much of the writing at least in my
day in the Profetic Religion.
