The General Court of the Massachusetts Bay colony sentenced Anne Hutchinson to banishment from the colony because they considered her a religious rebel. The charges against her were both vague and unclear. In reality, Mrs. Hutchinson represented a double threat for the government and the church of the colony. Her religious ideas challenged both the Puritan orthodoxy in New England, and the traditional role of women in Massachusetts' Puritan society.
Although the New England Puritans believed that men and women were spiritually equal, that does not imply that they believed they were equal in other means. Each member of the colony knew its role and its place in society. Wives, as the author says, "were expected to help with the supplement of their husbands' public activitie." (Wheeler and Becker 32-33). At first Anne fit into this mold the Puritans and made. She had an "expertise in herbal medicines, nursing the sick, and midwifery" (Wheeler and Becker 33). The leaders of the Puritan society started taking notice of her when she started becoming interested in religious issues and holding meetings at her house, something women were not supposed to do.
Women dynamically participated in religious activities in order to strengthen Puritanism in the colony. Nevertheless, they were not considered religious leaders; they just followed what the church ordered. Winthrop believed that, "women should be submissive and supportive, like his wife and sister, and there was ample support for his position in the Bible" (Wheeler and Becker 33). In a way they thought God designed women to serve their husbands. This placed women in a position below men, which in consequence meant that women were subjugated to what men decided, and it is important to note that church was lead by men. Therefore women did not have a voice or a vote regarding religious matters. Anne Hutchinson teaching women about religious issues put her in the position of a somewhat religious leader.
