A noted historian, the late Gerda Lerner points out that women had no conscious history of feminist ideas until quite recently. Over the centuries, women who criticized sexist biblical interpretations were generally unaware of the efforts of previous generations. The great female mystics were living contradictions of the idea that women could only communicate to god through the agency of males.

Gerda Lerner, Ph.D., a founder of the field of women's history, is author of The Creation of Patriarchy and The Creation of Feminist Consciousness.