The Radical Women's Press of the 1850s (Women's Source Library)

In 1853, Paulina Wright Davis, editor of a women's periodical, called the women's movement the greatest feat in the entire history of public opinion. This collection contains critical works from six radical periodicals of the 1850s. The editors and many of the contributors to the newspapers (including Amelia Bloomer, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Frances D.Gage and many others who should be well known writers and activists) called themsleves strong-minded women; today they would be called radical feminists. The introductions and excerpts indicate the writers' independence of men's definitions, and the women's concern with such topics as the damaging effects of men's accounts of history, men's battering of women, women's economic poverty and restrictions on women's freedom including unhealthy fashion norms and requirements.