“Mother Ann’s message was that since the Deity had forgiven both Adam and Eve and their earthly descendants, men and women must now be united and treated equally in the sight of God,” Campbell writes. Thus, all Shaker leadership positions were shared equally by men and women. Spiritual revivals within the sect were frequently led by adolescent girls. Jobs in the communities were segregated by gender, but Campbell writes that the idea wasn’t that women were unsuited to higher-status work, but that mixed workplaces threatened Shakers’ celibacy.

Arab society remains deeply traditional, and what religious leaders say carries a lot of weight, explains Frej, who sat on the parliamentary committee that nominated Khatib. "There really is no such thing as a secular Muslim," he says. "So for real change in Muslim society, you need the religious establishment to support it. So it is significant that you have religious law saying it's OK for women to be a sharia court judge. That means that gender equality can improve in other parts of life, as well."

“The notion that equality between the sexes is inherent to the logic of secularism”, she argues, “is false”. “Gender inequality”, she states, “is not simply the byproduct of the emergence of modern Western nations; rather, that inequality is at its very heart”. Secularism, she adds, has served to account for this fact. More troubling, Scott affirms that secularism has most often been used to justify the claims of white, western and Christian racial and religious superiority in the present as well the past. Strangely, the biggest threat to gender equality in the modern era, according to her argument, has been neither the Catholic church, Protestant fundamentalism, fascist movements, etc, but secularism.

“We call our pastors, our elders, and our parishioners who have been silent to speak up and stand up for all who experience abuse,” the #SilenceIsNotSpiritual statement said. “There is no institution with greater capacity to create protected spaces for healing and restoration for survivors, as well as confession, repentance and rehabilitation for perpetrators.”

Today, the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, a dispute over whether a Colorado baker can refuse to sell a cake to a same-sex couple for their wedding simply because their union offends his religious beliefs. A ruling against the couple would not only mark a major setback in the fight for LGBT equality, it would threaten to unravel hard-won legal protections for women.