Leadership in America.-The origins of the American woman movement are to be found in the writings of a few early intellectual leaders.During the first decades of the nineteenth century，books，articles，and pamphlets about women came in increasing numbers from the press.Lydia Maria Child wrote a history of women；Margaret Fuller made a critical examination of the status of women in her time；and Mrs.Elizabeth Ellet supplemented the older histories by showing what an important part women had played in the American Revolu-tion.
The Struggle for Education.-Along with criticism，there was carried on a constructive struggle for better educational facilities for women who had been from the beginning excluded from every college in the country.In this long bat-tle，Emma Willard and Mary Lyon led the way；the former founded a seminary at Troy，New York；and the latter made the beginnings of Mount Holyoke Col-lege in Massachusetts.Oberlin College in Ohio，established in 1833，opened its doors to girls and from it were graduated young students to lead in the woman movement.Sarah J.Hale，who in 1827became the editor of a "Ladies'Maga-zine，"published in Boston，conducted a campaign for equal educational op-portunities which helped to bear fruit in the founding of Vassar College shortly after the Civil War.
The Desire to Effect Reforms.-As they came to study their own history and their own part in civilization，women naturally became deeply interested in all the controversies going on around them.The temperance question made a special appeal to them and they organized to demand the right to be heard on it.In 1846the "Daughters of Temperance"formed a secret society favoring pro-hibition.They dared to criticize the churches for their indifference and were so bold as to ask that drunkenness be made a ground for divorce.
The slavery issue even more than temperance called women into public life.The Grimkésisters of South Carolina emancipated their bondmen，and one of these sisters，exiled from Charleston for her "Appeal to the Christian Women of the South，"went North to work against the slavery system.In 1837the National Women's Anti-Slavery Convention met in New York；seventy-one women delegates represented eight states.Three years later eight American women，five of them in Quaker costume，attended the World Anti-Slavery Convention in London，much to the horror of the men，who promptly excluded them from the sessions on the ground that it was not fitting for women to take part in such meetings.
In other spheres of activity，especially social service，women steadily enlarged their interest.Nothing human did they consider alien to them.They inveighed against cruel criminal laws and unsanitary prisons.They organized poor relief and led in private philanthropy.Dorothea Dix directed the movement that induced the New York legislature to establish in 1845a separate asylum for the criminal insane.In the same year Sarah G.Bagley organized the Lowell Female Reform Association for the purpose of reducing the long hours of labor for women，safeguarding "the constitutions of future generations."Mrs.Eliza Woodson Farnham，matron in Sing Sing penitentiary，was known throughout the nation for her social work，especially prison reform.Wherever there were misery and suffering，women were preparing programs of relief.
Freedom of Speech for Women.-In the advancement of their causes，of whatever kind，women of necessity had to make public appeals and take part in open meetings.Here they encountered difficulties.The appearance of women on the platform was new and strange.Naturally it was widely resented.An-toinette Brown，although she had credentials as a delegate，was driven off the platform of a temperance convention in New York City simply because she was a woman.James Russell Lowell，editor of the "Atlantic Monthly，"declined a poem from Julia Ward Howe on the theory that no woman could write a poem；but he added on second thought that he might consider an article in prose.Na-thaniel Hawthorne，another editor，even objected to something in prose because to him "all ink-stained women were equally detestable."To the natural resent-ment against their intrusion into new fields was added that aroused by their ideas and methods.As temperance reformers，they criticized in a caustic man-ner those who would not accept their opinions.As opponents of slavery they were especially bitter.One of their conventions，held at Philadelphia in 1833，passed a resolution calling on all women to leave those churches that would not condemn every form of human bondage.This stirred against them many of the clergy who，accustomed to having women sit silent during services，were in nomood to treat such a revolt leniently.Then came the last straw.Women decided that they would preach-out of the pulpit first，and finally in it.
Women in Industry.-The period of this ferment was also the age of the in-dustrial revolution in America，the rise of the factory system，and the growth of mill towns.The labor of women was transferred from the homes to the fac-tories.Then arose many questions：the hours of labor，the sanitary conditions of the mills，the pressure of foreign immigration on native labor，the wages of women as compared with those of men，and the right of married women to their own earnings.Labor organizations sprang up among working women.The mill girls of Lowell，Massachusetts，mainly the daughters of New England farm-ers，published a magazine，"The Lowell Offering."So excellent were their writ-ings that the French statesman，Thiers，carried a copy of their paper into the Chamber of Deputies to show what working women could achieve in a republic.As women were now admittedly earning their own way in the world by their own labor，they began to talk of their "economic independence."