  In some Quaker texts, “woman” or “womanliness” is redefined to mean weakness and carnal wisdom by contrast with strength and spiritual wisdom. In To The Priests and People, Cotton and Cole identify womanliness with weakness, vanity, shame, and dishonor. They insult the priests who visit them in prison by saying that “you your selves are the women, that are forbidden to speak in the Church” (Cotton &amp; Cole 1655, 7–8). In response, Gill (2005) notes that