author
Eliza Burt Gamble
1841–1920
A sharp early feminist thinker, teacher, and writer from Michigan, she challenged accepted ideas about women’s inferiority and brought evolutionary theory into the debate. Her books blend social criticism, history, and big questions about religion, science, and gender.
2 Audiobooks
The God-Idea of the Ancients; Or, Sex in Religion
by Eliza Burt Gamble
About the author
Born in Concord, Michigan, in 1841, Eliza Burt Gamble was an American writer, teacher, and advocate of the women’s movement. She taught in Michigan schools and became known for ambitious, argumentative nonfiction that pushed back against male-dominated ideas in science and society.
Her best-known book, The Evolution of Woman (1894), took aim at claims that biology proved women were naturally inferior to men. She later published The God-Idea of the Ancients (1897) and The Sexes in Science and History (1916), continuing her interest in religion, social history, and the ways scientific theories were used to shape public opinion.
Gamble died in 1920, but her work still stands out for its boldness. She wrote for readers willing to question established authority, and her books offer a revealing look at feminist thought at the turn of the twentieth century.