Stolen daughters, virgin mothers

by Susan Mumm

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.