Male leaders exploited women’s internal disputes to justify male control

Evidence

The success of black Baptist women in building their own national convention was accompanied by growing pains, however. Jealousies, the generation gap, and differences in leadership style existed among the women and had to be reconciled. For example, in late 1902 and throughout most of 1903 tensions between the youthful Nannie Burroughs and the veteran missionary Virginia Broughton received widespread attention in the Baptist press. The two women vied with each other over the editorship of the “Woman’s Column” in the National Baptist Union. Burroughs asserted that the column rightfully belonged to her, since it functioned as a medium of communication to women across the nation. Burroughs acknowledged that Broughton had been a leader among Baptist women before she was born, but argued forcefully: “If I am incompetent to edit the Woman’s Column of our Convention, which column should give information on the work throughout the country, reports from time to time of visits made and the condition of the field as we go over it, then Mrs. Broughton cannot until she is made Corresponding Secretary, for she cannot get these facts unless she is doing work, and the Convention must go all the way by giving her the job.” Broughton’s use of the column was primarily for religious instruction and personal reflections. … The Reverend I. W. D. Isaac, editor of the National Baptist Union, divided the women further by his negative public coverage of the controversy. His goal was to place the women under the control of the male-dominated National Baptist Convention by revealing them to be too internally divided for self-government. … Although WC president S. Willie Layten sided with Broughton, the convention’s executive board and membership rallied around Burroughs. By August 1903 Burroughs, Broughton, Layten, and the convention in general put the controversy behind them and, with a call for “higher ground,” conveyed an impressive show of solidarity in the black Baptist press. — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent, 753

Categorization

• XREF: Illustrates the politics of respectability’s flip side: the fear of appearing internally divided to hostile outside observers, which forces public shows of solidarity. Contrasts with internal candor described by Higginbotham in earlier framing. — connects to: Even pro-woman male leaders opposed women forming separate spheres of denominational power — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent: The Women’s…, 707; Women’s first institutional projects bankrolled the very male board that had championed them. — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent: The Women’s…, 721; Male leaders exploited internal women’s disputes as proof they could not self-govern — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent: The Women’s…, 754 (+7 more)
• CANDY: Two pioneering Black Baptist women feuded in print over editing a column — with the younger challenger arguing she deserved it precisely because she did the fieldwork that supplied the news — then publicly reconciled on a shared call for higher ground.

Broader Connections

• Male leaders exploited internal women’s disputes as proof they could not self-govern #expands (0.97) — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent, 754
• Male supremacy functions as a political strategy maintaining gendered power relations #expands (0.85) — Frans Dokman, Beyond Bantu Philosophy_…, 928
• Male denominational leaders tried to subordinate autonomous black women’s organizations #exemplifies (0.83) — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent, 738
• Egalitarian gender relations threaten men’s privileged position and deter collective guilt #expands (0.80) — Nyla R. Branscombe and Bertjan Doosje (eds.), Collective Guilt, 583
• Male ministers opposed women’s societies chiefly over money and authority #qualifies (0.78) — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent, 341
• Evangelical leaders framed women-in-combat policy as an attack on presidential manhood #exemplifies (0.75) — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne, 541
• Women competing for male favor are inherently hostile to each other #complicates (0.74)
• Emphasis on male authority correlates with twisted scandal justifications #exemplifies (0.72) — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne, 636