This groundbreaking book explores the philosophical writing of four female reformers, identifying how their spiritual representations of the feminine attempted to authorize and empower women.  Championing the benefits of well educated Christian women, Hannah More, Mary Wollstonecraft, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Mary Baker Eddy constructed an idiom through which to represent the spiritual equality of the male and female.  Arleen M. Ingham critically investigates how these writers challenged historical identity formations and highlighted the potential for female influence in the private "and "public sphere. 

This comparative study graphs the feminist theological trajectory of the religious writings of four eclectic, but similar, women: Hannah More, Mary Wollstonecraft, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Mary Baker Eddy.