Helen LaKelly Hunt is founder and president of The Sister Fund a major contributor to women’s causes. She was troubled that religious views were not welcome in feminist circles. In her recent book Faith and Feminism: A Holy Alliance Hunt analyses the relationship between faith and the women’s movement. Interviewed by Amy Cunningham.

Can you explain how you came to see that the feminist movement was closed off to religion? In my personal life, as I was sitting in feminist meetings, it was ironic that we were invited to bring our “whole person” and our full sisterhood to the table, but if you mentioned your Hindu faith, or your Christian faith, or if you said “I’m in a prayer group,” [you were] met with stony silence and embarrassment. As I went back and forth between my feminist activities and my [religious] roots, I saw how combative feminists were and I felt that was necessary for part of our evolution, but that there was a greater strength. And so, I began to wonder what would happen if feminists got interested in empathy, and instead of challenging men for not including them, asked men what was going on with them, what made it difficult for men to invite women into their circles or give them equal pay. The dialogue piece was missing in the women’s movement. Most faiths I know are about interconnectedness. That was missing in the feminist movement. I feel that faith and feminism have a deep relationship to each other and that both are responses to the deep human yearning for connection and for peace on earth, and that they both have a vision of universal human equity. — Beliefnet.com