Women — the traditional mainstays of institutional religion — in huge numbers abruptly rejected the church's patriarchal exemplar of them as chaste, submissive "angels in the house" with all of the social and moral responsibility for community and family but none of the authority.
Unable to find acceptable religious role models or religious ideals that were not painful or oppressive, they reconstructed their identities as secular and sexual beings.
As they progressed into university graduate and professional schools and entered the work force, their horizons broadened and they discovered ways of serving that were more valuable than doing dishes and running church picnics.
It seems that our young women are less and less enthralled by their god-ordained role as objects worth 20 silver sheckles. I can't imagine why.
Update: It seem PZ has this before me. Damn him and his articulate sarcasm. I notice he quoted the same portion as me though,.... Great minds think alike?
