The Most Hated Woman in America: Gender, Atheism, and the Media

This presentation explores how gender played a role in earning Madalyn Murray O'Hair the title "The Most Hated Woman in America." In 1963, O'Hair (then known as Madalyn Murray) won her Supreme Court case Murray v Curlett, the companion case to the now-more famous Abington School District v Schempp. Despite being known in history as the woman who removed prayer from school, O'Hair was neither the first person nor even the first atheist woman to successfully challenge school districts' inclusion of religious exercises at the Supreme Court. She would certainly become the most well-known and most hated, but not necessarily because of her ideology.

The epithet "The Most Hated Woman in America," a moniker she embraced for the rest of her life, was given to O'Hair in 1964 by Life Magazine. This presentation argues that O'Hair was not the most hated woman in America because of her atheism or even because of her success at the Supreme Court. She was the most hated woman in America because she did not conform to accepted American gender norms. Even before her case was decided, the media questioned her womanhood and her fitness as a mother, whereas the fitness of atheist women who came before and after her was not. After the decision, criticisms of O'Hair often focused on her demeanor, appearance, and her use of vulgarity, and while her ideology did play a role in how the public viewed her, others with similar views, both men and women before and after her, did not face the same kind of vilification or notoriety.

This presentation will highlight some of the media coverage of O'Hair, Vasthi McCollum, who fought in 1947 to have voluntary religious classes removed from public schools, Ellen Johnson, O'Hair's successor as president of American Atheists, and others, atheist and non-atheist alike, who fought in the courts to remove prayer and religious exercises from public schools.