Women Without Superstition : No Gods - No Masters

by Annie Laurie Gaylor

Collected writings of women freethinkers of the 19th and 20th centuries.

Genres: Feminism, Nonfiction, History, Atheism, Religion, Philosophy, Womens

680 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

Annie Laurie Gaylor is an American atheist, secular and women's rights activist and a co-founder of – and, with her husband Dan Barker, a current co-president of – the Freedom From Religion Foundation. She was also the editor of the organization's newspaper, Freethought Today (published ten times per year) until 2015.

Reviews

[Kevin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Being pejoratively put down as a “new atheist” is nonsensical. There's nothing new about modern day atheists other than their access to wider audiences via technology and social media. Outspoken atheism has been around for as long as outspoken theology, it’s just that now it’s proving impossible to silence.

Women Without Superstition: No Gods - No Masters is a condensed library of essays, speeches, excerpts and articles, representing ninety women* who are chronologically presented and biographically outlined. These are the “heresies” some clergymen want to censor excerpted from the periodicals and books some politicians want to ban. Spanning two hundred and thirty eight years (1759 to 1997), this is six hundred and eighty pages of enlightenment and inspiration. 5 stars.

*All of these women were/are remarkable but the one that stood out most for me was Sherry Matulis. If you read nothing else printed here, search out How I Earned My Feminist Credentials. This is the speech Matulis delivered to the AHA in Chicago, 1991. It is truth to power in the most literal sense imaginable.
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“The late proceedings of those daring invaders to establish a national religion have opened the eyes of all lovers of liberty . . . they have thrown off the mask and are preaching to the people to elect none but godly men to represent them in the General and State Legislatures; as to godly men, I believe they are very scarce, but what they mean by godly people, is people of their own stamp.” -Anne Newport Royal, 1829

“I certainly had no idea how little faith Christians have in their own faith till I saw how ill their courage and temper can stand any attack on it.” -Harriet Martineau, 1877

“[Rev. Morgan Dix] quaintly asserts that man should be the head of the family, because ‘Adam was first formed, then Eve.’ What does that prove? Either nothing, or that man is inferior to the fishes.” -Lillie Devereux Blake, 1883

“…wherever we find laws of the state bearing with greater hardship upon woman than upon man, we shall ever find them due to the teachings of the church.” -Matilda Joslyn Gage, 1890

“…anyone who would make a lake of fire and brimstone in which to incinerate his children ought to be the first one burned in it.” -Susan H. Wixon, circa 1893

“I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do to their fellows, because it always coincides with their own desires.” -Susan B. Anthony, 1898

“It is one of the mysteries that woman, who has suffered so intensely from the rule of the church, still worships her destroyer and licks the hand that’s raised to shed her blood.” -Elizabeth Cady Stanton, 1902

“Scientific thought has had two hundred years; religious systems all the past before that. Comparison between what the two methods have done for humanity needs no emphasis.” -Dora Russell, 1932

“Religious people often accuse atheists of being arrogant and of placing ourselves in the position of God, but really it is the theist who has all the vanity. He can’t stand to think that he will ever cease to exist.” -Marian Sherman, M.D., 1965

“There wasn’t a page of the bible that didn’t offend me in some way. I had always been told the bible was a book about love, but I couldn’t find enough love in it to fill a salt shaker. God is not love in the Bible; God is vengeance. There is no other book between whose covers life is so cheap.” -Ruth Hurmence Freen, 1979

“Freedom of religion apparently means: If you’ve got one, you’re free. But, by God, if you don’t have one, you have no rights anywhere along the line.” -Catherine Fahringer, 1991

“If it’s true that there’s nothing as powerful as an idea whose time has come, I think it’s equally true that there’s nothing as pervasively harmful as a malefic religious notion whose time won’t go.” -Sherry Matulis, 1991

[Terence · Rating 3 out of 5]

Women Without Superstition is a collection of excerpts from the writings of female free-thinkers, almost exclusively American and white, which I think is the collection's greatest weakness, spanning the years from the founding of the Republic to the late '90s, when the volume was published. A revised edition or second volume (of which there is sore need considering the state of affairs in the world today) should seek out more women of color and non-American/non-West European voices.*

That aside, the excerpts here (with some exceptions) are a fascinating look at the concerns of free-thinking women (including two of my personal heroes, Emma Goldman and Margaret Fuller), which I would strongly recommend to anyone interested in the same.**

* A by-no-means exhaustive Google search pulled up Butterfly McQueen (most well known for her role as the slave in "Gone With the Wind"), Lorraine Hansberry, Jamila Bey, Robin Quivers (of "The Howard Stern Show"), and a Nigerian author, Oge Igboegbunam.

** While there were some questionable inclusions, they were far out numbered by the women who you wanted to know more about. Particularly, in my case, Voltairine de Cleyr (1866-1912), an anarchist who hobnobbed with Goldman.

[Teresa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Continuously reading. Every woman must read this. Annie L. Gaylor has written a short historical introduction of different women who have contributed a major impact during their time. They spoke openly about their heretical beliefs--in a disapproving society. Such courage is still required today, which makes this book inspiring reading.

Note: This is a very large hard cover book and it is not really a book you would carry around. It's a type of book you keep in you personal library. Great intellectual conversation starters. This is an ongoing read.

[Regina · Rating 5 out of 5]

It has taken me four years but I've finally finished this book. It has been a pleasure. Each chapter lead to further reading such as Margaret Sanger's "Motherhood in Bondage".

[Denise · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of biographies, lectures, and writings of over fifty admirable women. Some well known such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton and many new to me. Reminds me of a collection I read years ago, Herstory. Both books share backgrounds, achievements, and contributions.

A few favorite quotes:

Pg.10 Freethought has no gender.

"Books and opinions, no matter from whom they came, if they are in opposition to human rights, are nothing but dead letters..." -Ernestine L. Rose

Pg.23 "Free thought, free speech and a free press" and "Good works instead of long prayers." -Anne Newport Royall

Pg.111 "The happiest people I have known have been those who gave themselves no concern about their own souls, but did their uttermost to mitigate the miseries of others." -Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Pg.116 "...but to no form of popular religion has woman ever been indebted for one pulsation of liberty. Obedience and subjection have been the lessons taught her..." -Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Pg.118 "The women are the chief, untiring pertinacious beggars for the church... In return, the whole tone of church teaching in regard to woman is, to the last degree, contemptuous and degrading." -Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Pg.129 "Truth for authority, not authority for truth." -Lucretia Mott

Pg.131 "Good schools and homes where the young could ever be surrounded by an atmosphere of purity and virtue, would do much more to prevent immorality and crime in our cities than all the churches in the land could ever possibly do toward the regeneration of the multitude sunk in poverty, ignorance, and vice." -Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Pg.140 "It is as disastrous to true government in the state, and home, to teach all womankind to submit to the authority of man, as divinely ordained, as it is to teach all mankind to bow down to the authority of kings and Popes, as divinely ordained." -Elizabeth Cady Stanton

[Judy, Judy, Judy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Women Without Superstition is a book about women who do not believe in anything that is not logical or reasonable or without proof. 1CFreethought means the use of reason in forming opinions about religion, rather than basing belief on faith, authority or tradition, 1D says Annie Laurie Gaylor who edited the book. Because of this it is a book that has a lot of content that is anti-religion. But even if you are a person of religious bent it is worth reading as it is a close look at 51 women who have shaped our country. Women of courage who have given of their time, their safety and dignity, their very lives so that we can do simple things like vote, own property or receive property in wills, wear what we want, have reproductive options, divorce men who abuse us or our children, and so on and so on and so on. I can not imagine the dark country we would live in today without the sacrifices of these women. Many of these women were also abolitionists who worked courageously against slavery until it was finally outlawed.
The women range in ages from the oldest, now dead, of course, Mary Wollstonecraft, born in 1759 to the youngest, Taslima Nasrin, born in 1962. Of the 51 Taslima is the only one covered who is a woman of color. I can only speculate that this is because there is not as much information available about the women of color who also surely worked alongside these women in their efforts to better the lives of all of us.

The quotes and the looks into the lives of these women is very inspirational:

From the first woman - Mary Wollstonecraft who said, 1C 26the being cannot be termed rational or virtuous, who obeys any authority, but that of reason. 1C A Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792)

To the last woman - Taslima Nasrin the 18Bengali Blasphemer 19 born in 1962 who at the writing of the book was in hiding as she had been sentenced to death by the theocracy of Bangladesh since the publication of her novella Shame. A physician she is outspoken about the atrocities she sees done to women and children everyday in the muslim society and calls for abolishing all religions.
(Outside the scope of this book, according to Taslima Nasrin 19s official website, she is still writing and lecturing. She is still in and out of hiding due to muslim persecution. She, and her written works, are not allowed back into her country of Bangladesh or in certain parts of India.)

To every woman in between -they changed our country for the better and their back story is well worth the read.

[Steven H · Rating 5 out of 5]

A MARVELOUS COLLECTION OF WRITINGS FROM THE 18TH CENTURY TO THE 20TH

Editor Annie Laurie Gaylor wrote in the Preface of this 1997 book, “This collection makes available for the first time the work and writings of women freethinkers which otherwise must be scavenged from the dustbin of history. The ‘heretical’ thoughts and often eloquent writings of women without superstitions should not be forgotten in the musty corridors of a few libraries… [The book] is intended in part to acquaint feminists with the freethinking heritage of the women’s rights movement, and the freethought ideas that so often motivated and underpinned the convictions of many feminist foremothers… Their nonreligious views often have been suppressed, as if shameful, when in fact repudiation of patriarchal religion is an essential step in freeing women. Similarly, the work of women freethinkers … has all too often been ignored or relegated to footnotes by historians of freethought… This collection reclaims the rightful place of women freethinkers.”

She explains in the Introduction, “Besides including essays and excerpts from books and periodicals, [this book] includes glimpses of other facets of the lives of women freethinkers, from autobiographical sketches to newspaper interviews and profiles. The centerpiece of this collection is the Elizabeth Cady Stanton Freethought Reader… containing excerpts from more than forty of her writings about religion… most of these writings have never appeared in book form.” (Pg. 12)

She notes, “Women freethinkers were also, naturally, significant in the freethought movement. [Mary] Wollstonecraft championed the Enlightenment… Frances Wright began lecturing in response to revival meetings… Women have been among the most ardent supporters of secularism… Matilda Joslyn gage warned of an alliance between Catholics and Protestants seeking to put God in the Constitution one hundred years ago… Elizabeth Cady Stanton led the campaign to ensure that Sabbatarians would not close the World’s Fair of 1893 on Sundays… Taslima Nasrin, who has a ‘fatwa’ hanging over her head from Moslem fundamentalists, is a modern-day freedom fighter in the international battle of ‘woman versus orthodoxy.’” (Pg. 9-10)

She points out that “Frances Wright was the first woman to speak publicly to man and women from the podium in the United States, the first to publicly advocate women’s equality, and certainly the first to question the utility of religion and denounce the power of the clergy… But to the United States press and clergy of her day, she was ‘The Red Harlot of Infidelity.’ … her words broke as many barriers as her actions did.” (Pg. 33)

Of Margaret Fuller, she comments, “her writing reflected a kind of merged paganism, Unitarianism, and Transcendentalism… [Her] disparagements or reservations about Jesus were censored by Channing, a Christian Socialist minister… Margaret, in final analysis, appeared to be a Desist in the mold of Mary Wollstonecraft.” (Pg. 89-90)

Of Mary Ann Evans [George Eliot], she explains, “She was first exposed to freethought and skeptical reading through family friend Charles Bray… Her eyes opened to religion, however painfully, conscientious Mary Ann gave up religion and stopped attending church. Her father refused to live with her, sending her to live with a sister, until Mary Ann consoled him by promising to reexamine her feelings… she learned … that human relationships are more important than sect or dogma… Mary Ann proceeded to the monumental task of translating [David Friedrich] Strauss’s ‘Das Leben Jesu,’ her translation appearing anonymously in 1846. Drawn to the pantheism of Spinoza and Wordsworth, she also admired George Sand.” (Pg. 185)

She says of Matilda Joslyn Gage, “In 1890, when Matilda convened the Woman’s National Liberal Union, no woman had ever headed a national freethought group … Matilda never called a second convention. She devoted the next few years to completing, ‘Woman, Church and State.’ … Matilda served on the ‘Woman’s Bible’ committee… Matilda dabbled in theosophy, but her beliefs in parapsychology were, however misguidedly, predicated on a rejection of the supernatural and a conviction that NATURAL LAWS discovered under the matriarchate had been suppressed.” (Pg. 214-215)

She says of Annie Besant, she notes, “In 1874, Annie met Charles Bradlaugh… Annie and Bradlaugh, both unhappily married to others, shared an intimate but platonic relationship… To challenge the Obscene Publications Act, Annie persuaded Charles that they should reprint ‘The Fruits of Philosophy,’ a book about birth control by physician Charles Knowlton. They were arrested, tried and narrowly avoided jail. Annie shrewdly rewrote the outdated booklet, her version becoming a bestseller and hastening the birth control movement worldwide. But her involvement lost her custody of her eight-year-old daughter… She never lost her affection for atheism or respect for Bradlaugh, and her freethought experiences. She regarded atheism as her stepping stone to theosophy, which she maintained was rational.” (Pg. 271-273)

She says of modern freethinker Catherine Fahringer, “Fahringer is [San Antonio’s] most high-profile atheist. She’s frequently called the ‘Madalyn Murray O’Hair of San Antonio’---a comparison Fahringer doesn’t like… [She says], ‘There ARE other atheists out there. They are beautiful people. Madalyn’s not, unfortunately.’ [Murray O’Hair’s American Atheists] was the first organization I joined,’ says Farhringer. ‘… I lasted about a year. And I found out that Madalyn Murray O’Hair is to atheism what Jim and Tammy Baker were to Christianity.’ … Fahringer says she joined the Austin-based American Atheists because she agrees with O’Hair’s philosophies. However, she says she was turned off by that organization’s emphasis on fund-raising.” (Pg. 490)

Gaylor says of her mother Anne Nicol Gaylor, “In the mid-seventies, with her daughter Annie Laurie and an elderly friend… she started the Freedom From Religion Foundation, ‘a dining-room table cause group’ until 1978, when it was organized as a national association and Anne as president… The Foundation’s focus has been the separation of church and state and the education of the public about nontheists.” (Pg. 512)

She states, “Sonia Johnson became a ‘woman warrior’ after being excommunicated from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1979, for her public support of the proposed Equal Rights Amendment to the United States Constitution. Her treatment at the hands of the Mormon hierarchy catapulted her ‘from housewife to heretic,’ turning her into a national celebrity and one of the most ardent supporters of the ERA. Sonia was arrested in November 1980… for chaining herself to the gates of a Mormon temple. Her activism culminated in a life-threatening thirty-seven day fast with six other women in the statehouse in Springfield, Illinois, when that state’s nonratification became pivotal in 1982… Sonia was named the first ‘Humanist Heroine] by the Feminist Caucus of the American humanist Association in 1982.” (Pg. 569)

There is much, much more in this book, which will be “must reading” for students of Feminism, Freethought, and religious liberty.

[Kate Laws · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a woman and an atheist I cannot tell you how powerful it was to read this book. It took me several years, but whenever I was feeling alone and crazy I could pull this out and read about a woman free thinker, read her writings and about her life, and remember that I'm not alone. We have always existed. And we have always had important, insightful things to say.

[Rosalía · Rating 5 out of 5]

Margaret Sanger, George Elliot, Susan B Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and so many more share their views about the oppression caused by Christianity. WOMEN WITHOUT SUPERSTITION is a collection of works by freethinking women in history.

[Aster]

DNF at 18%

Mary Wollstonecraft was the only woman I remembered from this book (and her horrible death), so I'm glad I found someone who prioritized reason, especially for women. I needed to hear that from a reasonable woman.

However, when it came to another woman at which point I dropped, I realized this book wasn't for me. The religious woman feels ecstatic in fulfilling the biblical command to bear children, while the non-religious woman feels ecstatic from... doing her multiplication duties again. Of course, the non-religious woman had another reason for her ecstasy in multiplying duties—I hope so—but multiplying is a huge part of Christianity and a simple "I'm opposing religion because I bring forth children in ecstasy" doesn't really cut it.

I'm also not a Christian, never been one, but I've heard enough excuses from pronatalists for insulting childfree people to have these quotes drilled into me.

[Jenny Del toro · Rating 1 out of 5]

This, like her husband’s books, is worse than the driest textbook you will find. Annie is not a writer, she is a researcher.

[Chantay · Rating 3 out of 5]

"History is written by the victors" Winston Churchill

A hefty tome about the feminist history of women that have come unbound by religion. Most of our history is fraught with only events written by white men. It would seem during this time women and people of color were patiently standing behind these men caring for the children, cooking, and knitting. Women Without Superstition is about the women that seem to have fallen through the cracks. Little is known of the women that helped propel that Atheist movement in society. These women screamed the loudest, fought the hardest seemed to be written out of the lexicon of notable Atheists (we can mention Hickens, Dawkins, and Sagan off the top of our heads, but how many know of Madalyn Murray O'Hair or that Margaret Sanger was a staunch Atheist) there are no best-selling New York Times authors writing biographies speaking of the triumphs of the glorious lives of any of these self-identified free-thinkers, atheists, feminists, suffragists, abolitionists.


filling in the gaps of the lost rebels of Atheism. This book acknowledges these women. It gives you biographies, along with excerpts from their own biographies or books they have written. They were so much more than their sex. This is worth-reading for the fact that most biographies written by revolutionary women are centered around the men in their lives rather than their own accomplishments. Annie L. Gaylor gives you an entire picture of the person, other than the just being only determined that person by her sex.

My only issue is that I wish other notable Atheists had written about their favorite women and picked the experts that really meant a lot to them. Gaylor seems to back the book with large experts from books that are the same rhetoric from all the ladies. So that makes it a bit boring.

[Madmadam · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is one of the most treasured books on my heavily laden shelves. It profiles 50 some Amazing women. Women who with strength held tight to their own beliefs; women who refused to conform, and women who refused to cease questioning. Whether you believe in God or not, you have to admire the courage and strength of the women in this volume. Some are famous, who for their contributions to history, often for championing womens' rights, are familiar. The most fascinating, however, are the women who are obscured by a male-centric focus in our media (past and present). Even more happily surprising was the fact that not all profiled are from the past. Several of the women listed are still alive & kicking! I can't recommend this book enough to readers interested in free-thinking & in the history of free thought.

[Susan Baggott · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absolute MUST READ. I plan to buy this book! 51 women who dedicated their lives to separation of church and state, women's rights, and free thought are profiled, then their writings, speeches, letters, etc follow each short profile. Amazing and exhilarating. Many of the writings have not been published prior to this book. Highly recommended.

[Ronald · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you, Annie Laurie Gaylor for assembling this remarkable collection of gifted women freethinkers for our edification.
And thanks to you and your mother, Anne Gaylor for founding the Freedom From Religion Foundation, which does such fantastic work in exposing the frauds and miscreants who are living off the fatted golden goose of religion in America.

[William Frost · Rating 5 out of 5]

So, I read this book a long time ago, and who knows, maybe now I'd have more trouble with it (I know that many of those quoted in it, while progressive on some issues, were HORRIBLY racist as well), but it really did help break me out of some of the orthodoxy I grew up in and helped me be more feminist as well. At the least, it's a good start, esp. for high schoolers like I was.

[Abby · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent, out of print anthology--one of the only of its kind, I believe. It's a shame that most people know of only a handful of women in this book. Some great and courageous thinkers here, many of whom were ahead of their time.

[WT Sharpe · Rating 3 out of 5]

A valuable addition to the library of any freethinker, but it could improved by editing. In her efforts to leave no stone unturned, Annie Laurie Gaylor seems to fear leaving out any comment by any woman on free thought ever, no matter how insignificant it is to the overall picture.

[Elizabeth]

from the library

[T. Smith]

short biographies of freethinking women, published by the freedom from religion foundation www.ffrf.org

[Diane Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

especially enjoyed the writings of the 20th century women,loved Zona Gale's " Why".

[Erin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic collection, though it falls short by excluding most women of color who should have been included.