Reading for history class, I came upon this interesting viewpoint. At the moment I'm not sure what to make of it, but it seemed worth taking note of:

"On the matter of female prayer...Beecher argued that praying in public distorts the sensibilities and therefore the moral character of women - with actresses as the leading example of such corruption:

There is generally, and should be always, in the female character, a softness and delicacy of feeling which shrinks from the notoriety of public performance. It is the guard of female virtue, and invaluable in its soothing, civilizing influence on man; and a greater evil, next to the loss of conscience and chastity, could not befal the female sex, or the community at large, than to disrobe the female mind of these ornaments of sensibility, and clothe it with the rough texture of masculine fibre....and, if we need further testimony, the general character of actresses is a standing memorial of the influence of female elocution before public assemblies."

- from Gospel Hymns and Social Religion by Sandra S. Sizer