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Southern Methodist Women and the Fight for Racial and Gender Justice, 1939–1990

Abstract:This paper examines a badly understudied topic, the feminist leadership provided by southern women in the Department of Christian Social Relations, a subunit of the Woman's Society of Christian Service (WSCS), and the United Methodist Women (UMW) from 1940 to 1990. It examines the origins and influence of the powerful UMW and its predecessor organizations, and explains why southern women predominated in leadership and why southerners, who are usually understood to be forces of conservatism, led the church to adopt progressive positions and policies regarding racial and gender justice in the mid- to late twentieth century. Profiled are the three most influential women within the UMW and its predecessors: Thelma Stevens, Peggy Billings, and Theressa Hoover. It briefly describes the effect that the Religious Right had on progressive women, and concludes with a brief discussion of the current debate over human sexuality within Methodism.