As the vital role of women in culture, business, art, and politics is celebrated anew each year in the United States—where March is designated as Women's History Month—Mary Baker Eddy is increasingly being recognized as a pioneer with an enduring and powerful message that is still relevant.
Mary Baker Eddy's historic accomplishments were achieved in many fields traditionally dominated by men. Her achievements as author, publisher, healer, teacher, public speaker, spiritual discoverer, and religious founder were so remarkable that at the time of her passing in 1910 she was one of the best-known women in the United States.
Science and Health—including the healing system it outlines—has touched the lives of both men and women ever since its first printing. Yet it remains an unchangeable fact that this book was penned by a woman, and that she saw the essential contribution of womanhood in opposing materialism, which she understood to be the primary cause of sin and suffering. In Science and Health she writes: "Materialistic hypotheses challenge metaphysics to meet in final combat. In this revolutionary period, like the shepherd-boy with his sling, woman goes forth to battle with Goliath." Science and Health, p. 268.
