“The major connection between family life and churchgoing in the colonies affected the roles women played in both spheres. This is because women, though politically and often socially second class citizens, were highly influential in the home. For this reason, over time colonial women took more responsibility for children’s education, including moral guidance. And similarly, in the 1700’s women assumed increasingly larger roles in religious matters than they had in the previous century…Devout women were also strong motivators in getting their children and husbands to attend church. Mom helped with everything during wars because dad would be in war,” Source: Nardo, Don. Religious Beliefs in Colonial America. Detroit

Women were running the house and taking care of their children. They had influence on their kids and even their husbands when it came to getting everyone to church. I don’t understand why women thought it was so important for their family to attend church if they themselves weren’t allowed to have any important positions in the church. If I were a woman during this time period I wouldn’t want my family to be attending church because the church didn’t believe in women having the same rights as men. Women started occupying important religious roles in the 1700s maybe because when they were teaching their kids about moral guidance they didn’t talk about how women were less important or not equal to men but that everyone was equal, so when this new generation of kids got older and started running everything themselves women probably didn’t seem as less important as they used to. This new generation obviously didn’t think women were fully equal but thought they were a little more equal, then people used to. This little extra thought of women being equal gave women better religious positions and probably more rights too. Another reason is maybe because in the late 1700s the American Revolution took place, which caused a lot of men to go off to war, and so the women could then occupy important positions. Women had influence on their home, their family attending church, and their children’s normal education and moral education.