The connections between women’s rights and religious movements are not coincidental. Since the 19th century, spiritual movements have supported the fight for women’s equal rights.
by Karolina Maria Kotkowska*
*A paper presented at the webinar “Tai Ji Men Women: Fighting for Justice and Conscience” co-organized by CESNUR and Human Rights Without Frontiers on November 25, 2024, UN International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.
November 25 is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women since 1981. This day encourages reflection on the fact that in the 21st century not only we still have problems with human rights violations in general, but we are facing a situation where one half of humanity is statistically affected by violence more often than the other half because of gender inequality. The situation also still has institutional reinforcement—one third of the countries in the world have not outlawed domestic violence.
This issue has been addressed many times by the UN, starting in 1979, when the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women was adopted. Later in 1993, the General Assembly issued the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women, and in 2008 there was a campaign called the UNiTE to End Violence against Women.
The entanglement of the problem of inequality and women rights and religions has two different sides. Some religious views are part of the problem. On the other hand, the move toward changes was also related to religious views, those focused on the practical dimensions of the equality of all humanity despite outside differences.
The period of the so-called Occult Revival in Europe and the USA in the 19th century coincided with numerous social and cultural changes and was undoubtedly itself a consequence of many of them. The historical and ideological connections of the fight for equal rights for women with Spiritualism and later Modern Theosophy cannot be ignored. Famous suffragettes were also recruited from among esotericists and vice versa. The interest in non-orthodox spirituality often went hand in hand with the fight for equality and had ideological foundations.
In the perspective of the supremacy of the Spirit over the corporeal shell, as well as reincarnation, in which the wandering divine element travelled dressing in bodies of different sexes, the idea of the superiority of one of them had to be undermined. Dominant, authoritarian male roles in the family and the church ceased to satisfy women, who were also treated in a worse way from a civic perspective. Political rights are, after all, one of the most important aspects of subjective autonomy. The prophets of the monotheistic religions were increasingly being displaced by prophetesses of the New Age of the Spirit, and the mutual entanglement of Spiritualism and the American suffrage movement is one of the most interesting episodes of nineteenth-century occultism.
The story of the Fox sisters, who supposedly contacted spirits in a house in Hydesville, New York, spread all over the world. Interest in possible contact with the spiritual world reached a much wider, fertile religious and ideological ground in New York State, where one of the so-called Great Awakenings took place. It was not unusual for the Foxes to be friends with a group of Quakers, a denomination popular in the area, and one of the families living nearby, a radical follower of this denomination, played a very important role in popularizing the new method of contact with the spiritual world.
Isaac Post and his second wife Amy, who rented a house in Rochester to the Fox family before they moved to Hydesville, were famous abolitionists and promoters of equal rights for women and ran one of the most active stations on the Underground Railroad, i.e., an organization helping slaves. The equality of all people and a deep conviction of an unbroken chain of communication between the Creator and Creation were closely connected with the Quaker denomination. It should be emphasized that Spiritualism was not, of course, a separate religion, but it was closely connected with religion and remained so, even apart from its American beginnings, although it later combined with various worldviews. Many Quakers became Spiritualists, and the ideas spread very quickly—first within New York State, later to other areas.
Quakers were advocates of equal rights for all people. The fight for women’s suffrage began in the United States in the 1840s, emerging from a broader movement for women’s rights. The first convention on these issues took place in New York State, in Seneca Falls, in 1848. What is not mentioned in most textbooks is that a large number of participants in this convention were Spiritualists.
However, what did members of radical religious groups and Spiritualists have in common, apart from their beliefs? The ability and willingness to speak out. Although it may be far from obvious today, in the mid-19th century, the average woman was very far from civic activities. Therefore, membership in religious groups, where it was normal for a woman to lead a meeting, provided practice in speaking, which was so important for early suffragettes. Of course, Spiritualists also supported the fight for equality, and since they were the few women who were listened to in public, during séances and outside of them they began to talk about things that many did not want to hear before—that women were often slaves in marriages, that violence occurred in marriages, that rape in marriage was still rape. One of the Spiritualists was the first female candidate for the office of President of the United States in history, Victoria Woodhull (1838–1927).
As we can see, not only the historical context (the connection, to some extent accidental, of Spiritualism with some religious movements), ideological (the fight for equality), but also cultural, related to the fact that women were beginning to be listened to in public places, meant that the links between Spiritualism and the suffrage movement were really strong. Unfortunately, it was omitted in the first study of the movement for women’s equality from 1881. It disappeared from academic writing for over 100 years, only to be rediscovered, in its entirety, by Ann Braude in 1989 in her book “Radical Spirits: Spiritualism and Women’s Rights in Nineteenth-century America” (the book had an updated second edition in 2020).
Spiritualism was undoubtedly the first and most important phenomenon associated with esotericism, and at the same time the women’s rights movement on such scale in 19th century, but by no means the only one, although it was often a source for other concepts. The initiatory organization, which carried on its banners universal brotherhood, regardless of gender, creed, race, etc., and whose de facto leader was a woman, Helena Blavatsky (1831–1891), was the Theosophical Society. Not only was it founded in New York, but Blavatsky wrote her first major work, “Isis Unveiled,” in the very part of the state where Spiritualism flourished—in the town of Ithaca. Her stay there not only prompted her to organize her own beliefs about this trend, but also to engage in activities for equality. Recognition of the necessity of striving for universal brotherhood was the only ideological requirement for accepting a candidate into the structures of the Theosophical Society.
Today, after over a century and a half, some issues are still not resolved, yet the entanglement of spirituality and the fight for women’s rights, and against violence targeting women, is still visible.
In the case of the Taiwanese spiritual group Tai Ji Men both sides of the issue are there: peaceful fight for equality within the movement, and violence against its disciples. The Tai Ji Men Qigong Academy seeks to preserve the traditional essence of Chinese culture while enhancing the physical, mental, and spiritual well-being of people worldwide. While Tai Ji Men’s core principle is to “cultivate positive energy from the universe and draw inspiration from the virtuous teachings of sages throughout history,” the organization suffers from illegally imposed taxes, human rights violations, and various kinds of violence.
In Tai Ji Men philosophy, human rights are considered innate, laws are viewed as equally applicable to all, and men and women are seen as inherently collaborative. This reflects the concept of Tai Ji, where yin and yang harmonize and support one another. In his lecture for the International Day of Peace in 2021, Dr Hong Tao-Tze, Tai Ji Men’s Shifu (Grand Master), underlined that the essence of a culture of conscience lies in preventing war, resolving conflicts and confrontations through non-violent methods, and actively fostering peace. He wrote: “Throughout the history of peacemaking, women have played a vital and increasingly influential role in promoting social and global dialogue, multilateral cooperation, and the well-being of the world’s citizens. They are peacemakers and leaders, like the Mother Earth, who embraces and nurtures all things.”
He also referred to three co-laureates of the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize, when three women—two Liberians, one Yemeni—were awarded the distinction for their work campaigning for women’s rights: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Leymah Gbowee and Tawakkul Karman. As Dr. Hong wrote, they “have made significant contributions to human rights, democracy, and peace through their non-violent struggle for women’s security and the right to participate fully in peacebuilding efforts. The key to peace lies in promoting the purest form of human love and practicing it with perseverance. Actions based on love and conscience will be the strongest force for peaceful reform and the best way to maintain long-term peace in the world.”
Tai Ji Men dizi (disciples) implement this philosophy of equality in practical aspects of everyday life, both in small and in the most important matters. Unfortunately, the problems of violence against women do not bypass them either. This applies to the problems of the entire group, such as unfair taxes, nationalization of sacred land, media slander, but also to recent events such as restrictions on freedom of speech. A particularly striking case is that of Ms. Huang, a volunteer for the Legal and Tax Reform League, who in 2020 was detained and interrogated for hours because she was holding a poster while peacefully protesting. On the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, it is crucial to underline that in a democratic country, law enforcement and the judicial system should never be used as tools of political control or a means of inflicting violence on women who are innocent of any wrongdoing, and there should be no excuse from that.
