Title: Stolen daughters, virgin mothers
First published: 1999
Description: This book is the first real study of the social history and cultural significance of the sisterhoods which sprang up in Victorian Britain. It looks at those women who abandoned the domestic sphere to become the precursors of the modern social worker, while pushing back the boundaries of what women could do within the structures of the Anglican Church.

Based upon years of research into the archives of twenty-eight religious communities, the book has a unique breadth of coverage which offers a more comprehensive and accurate picture of the movement than has previously been possible. Above all, it shows that the sisterhoods were not refuges for women who failed to find husbands, rather, they attracted women who were moulding careers. They became so successful in recruiting women and attracting publicity that, by the 1860s, they threatened to undermine the hegemony of the ideal of the domestic life as the proper sphere for women.
Subjects: Anglican Communion, Church history, Church of England, History, Monasticism and religious orders for women, Women, social conditions, Church of england, history, Great britain, church history, 19th century
Places: England
Time periods: 19th century
LC classification: BX5185.A1 M86 1999