VISUAL ACTIVITY Women and the Church: Jemima Wilkinson In this engraving, Jemima Wilkinson, “the Publick Universal Friend,” wears a clerical collar and body-obscuring robe, much as a male minister would wear, in keeping with the claim that the former Jemima was now a person without gender. Wilkinson’s hair is swept back from the forehead and curled at the neck in the style of men’s powdered wigs of the 1790s. From History of Yates County by Stafford C. Cleveland, 1873. READING THE IMAGE: Was Wilkinson merely masculinized by dress and deportment, or did the “Universal Friend” truly transcend gender? CONNECTIONS: Why was it so difficult for women to attain religious authority in the early Republic? What allowed a few to rise above social limitations?