Queer Omissions : Unmarried Women and Social Justice Activism in the Church

Protestant Christian historiography has persistently erased unmarried, childless women from the story of faith in Australia.When women are mentioned, they are judged according to a heteronormative, maternalist framework built upon the ideology of separate spheres.This paradigm creates a lopsided picture, whereby women are celebrated for their social and moral influence, but are absent from rational, intellectual discourse.This book asks the question, why have unmarried women who devoted themselves to social justice activism motivated by their Christian faith been erased from the pages of Australian religious histories?It does this through biographies of two unmarried women, each engaged in very different work aimed at creating a more just and equitable Australia. Queer Omissions uses biographical case studies of two unmarried, childless women, Frances Levvy (1831-1924) and Constance Duncan (1896-1970), to critique the writing of Protestant religious histories in Australia, asking why t