Gender as a Confounding Variable

"I am not suggesting that the antinomian controversy was only a matter of gender difference; of course, politics, social mores, and theology were also at the center of the conflict.  But since gender issues often define the nature and substance of political and theological debates in the first place, it is difficult (if not impossible) to separate out the significance of gender in any particular conflict"

-  "A Radically Different Voice: Gender and Language in the Trials of Anne Hutchinson" (254-5)

 As I was going over my Anne Hutchinson reading, this quote jumped out at me.  In Statistics 110, we've been talking about different variables.  In this case, the variable is Anne Hutchinson's gender, the confouding variable.  A confounding variable is inseperable from the explanatory variable (the cause of an outcome) and therefore cannot be discounted.  So, whatever the root of the controversey surrounding Anne Hutchinson, gender cannot be discounted, just as the above quote illustrates.

Although issues of feminism can seem repetitive, they have to be discussed.  Would Anne Hutchinson have gone on trial if she was a man?  And, would she/he still be be a symbol of American freedom?