A post-Revolutionary settlement: separate spheres -- Ambiguous relations of education, reform, and feminism -- Some activist defenders of woman's sphere: Emma Willard, Catharine Beecher, Sarah J. Hale -- A radical stream of equal rights: Frances Wright, Robert Dale Owen, John Neal, an "indignant factory girl" -- Claiming the right to speak: Maria Stuart, the Grimké sisters -- Antislavery and feminism -- A schoolgirl debate on women's rights -- Raising the consciousness of middle-class women -- Margaret Fuller and self-development -- Seneca Falls Convention of 1848 -- Organizational structures of social movements -- Susan B. Anthony -- Importance of the "public sphere" -- The conventions -- Men in the movement -- The press and the movement -- Fears of role reversal -- Feminist dress and the bloomer costume.
The problems of organizing -- Practical campaigning -- Changes in the movement postponed by Civil War -- Some characteristics of the movement, its leaders and constituency -- Sojourner Truth -- Attraction to "New Age" movements -- Motivation -- Goals of the movement -- Self-development and independence -- Importance of work -- Individualism and rights -- The right to vote -- Antifeminist women -- Marriage and divorce -- The women's rights movement, the Civil War, and postwar reconstruction -- Disputes over priortities -- Women and the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments -- Failed Kansas campaign and founding of the Revolution -- Abortive attempts at alliance with labor.
New women in the movement -- Question of racism, quarrels with old allies, and a split in the women's movement -- NWSA and AWSA -- What the split meant -- The divorce question again -- Cady Stanton and issues of sexuality, birth control, and abortion -- Victoria Woodhull and free love -- Constitutionalism and the "new departure" -- Facing new opponents -- The arguments from science -- New rivals for the loyalty of American women -- American feminists contemplate how to celebrate 1776 -- The women's declaration of rights.
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