SMIDDY3:
Thanks..What I experienced was simple resentfulness against independent women by sheltered morons who were hypocrites collecting pensions having been in the workforce themselves.
My first congregation was like a time warp from the 1950s with smiling women who never worked. I guess I appeared to be an anomaly. Too bad. I had to work. The second congregation was better somewhat but still the mentality that a single young woman was there to do favors and pursue poverty like some idiot.
I stayed on the fringes of the congregation until I ‘faded’ years later..I had a few friends here and there. Some of these were older people, single moms with a profession and a few ditsy single women waiting for Armageddon to solve their problems..The religion generated hateful attitudes towards people with careers (but mostly women!!!!! The hypocrites were more ‘accepting’ if it was a man with a career).
Fast forward to now: I am a twenty year ‘Fader’ and Happily Retired who does not want any of these desperado Witnesses to come anywhere near me.