Feminized Protestantism suited laissez-faire capitalism but not corporate capitalism.

Evidence

Bederman notes that church membership remained more than 60 percent female for nearly two centuries and that the perceived crisis of a “feminized church” reflected in actuality the “gendered coding of contemporary languages of religion and of power.” In short, feminized Protestantism was deemed acceptable to men during the era of laissez faire capitalism. It went hand in hand with the old middle-class virtues of hard work, thrift, and self-sacrifice. While these values served “an individualistic, producer-oriented middle class,” they were rendered anachronistic to the emergent corporate capitalism of the Gilded Age. — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent, 1398

Categorization

• QUESTION: The economics-to-gender coding link—that a feminized church was acceptable under one economic regime and anachronistic under the next—merits pursuing: what precisely shifted in the 1890s masculinization campaigns materially and rhetorically?
• XREF: Directly connects to Higginbotham’s broader thesis that the Black Baptist women’s own ‘politics of respectability’ responded to a feminized church dynamic; also echoes the ADDENDUM ‘Complaints About Immodesty’ theme of gender-coded moral discourse shifting with class/political regime. — connects to: Modern time pressure originates in Protestant spiritual asceticism, not capitalist structure. — Hartmut Rosa, Social Acceleration: A New Theory of…, 196; Capitalism emerged ideologically through intensified spiritualization rather than secularization; The intrinsic-extrinsic religious motivation distinction reflects American Protestant norms, not universal values. (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Capitalism emerged ideologically through intensified spiritualization rather than secularization #expands (0.78)
• Modern time pressure originates in Protestant spiritual asceticism, not capitalist structure. #expands (0.75) — Hartmut Rosa, Social Acceleration, 196
• The intrinsic-extrinsic religious motivation distinction reflects American Protestant norms, not universal values. #expands (0.73)
• Calvinism’s economic ethic is really classical republicanism, not Protestantism #complicates (0.72)