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Traditional Gender Roles 7 to translate into other groups being denied their human rights. The reality, however, differs from this assumption: Research shows that achieving femi- nist human rights is transformative for the communities in which they take place (Collins et al., 2010). When women are given greater equality, their en- tire communities are more peaceful and more prosperous (Miller, Pournik, & Swaine, 2014). INTERSECTING TRENDS OF ACCOMMODATION AND RESISTANCE IN THE WOMEN’S MOVEMENT The historical context of the U.S. women’s movement is a complex one. It parallels other human rights struggles in this country in dynamic and varied ways while also maintaining its own trajectory that illustrates the far-reaching effects of traditional constructions of women and womanhood. These constructions are rooted in deep-seated cultural biases concerning gendered divisions of power, resources, and labor. Scholar and activist Jean Anyon (1984) presented a nuanced analysis of the connections between notions of psychological resistance and accommodation to hegemonic/oppressive norms in the struggle toward liberation from oppression. She illustrates these through discussion of the fi ght by American slaves for liberation from slavery and women’s negotiation of gender norms. We can extend this anal- ysis to consider the ways that the American women’s movement has been characterized simultaneously by accommodation to and resistance against prevailing national ideals that do not support women’s rights. These pro- cesses illustrate infl uences such as religion and education as both oppressive and emancipatory factors in women’s lives. The Role of Religion Elizabeth Cady Stanton, one of the leading fi gures of the women’s rights movement during the suffragist era in America, wrote in 1885, “History shows that the moral degradation of women is due more to theological su- perstition than to all other infl uences together” (Stanton & Spalding, 1885, p. 389). Stanton argued that the declared words of God were in fact those of men who used religion to oppress women. Although many feminists re- gard religion as a form of patriarchal subjection, many advocate the contrary, viewing religion and God as their refuge, their inspiration, and the guardian of their subjectivity (Irigaray, 1993). Instead of thinking of religion as either an oppressive or an emancipating force in women’s lives, Anyon (1984) suggested that women actively respond to gender role expectations within religion by engaging in both resistance and accommodation to these expectations, which in turn generates social