Quaker views on women

The early history of attitudes towards gender in the Religious Society of Friends (i.e. Quakers) is particularly notable for providing for one of the largest and most equitable roles for women in the Christian tradition at the time, despite not endorsing universal equality until much later.

Especially in the early years, a large number – even possibly the majority – of traveling Quaker preachers were women.

While some radical Puritan sects allowed women to preach, the conception of gender equality in Quakerism was unparalleled by other groups at the time.

[7] Concerning the introduction and much later dissolution of separate meetings, one historian writes, Quakers were heavily involved in the 19th-century movement for women's rights in the United States.

[9] The Progressive Friends, a radical Quaker group which supported women's empowerment, were formed shortly before the Seneca Falls Convention.

[10] Radical abolitionist Quakers, including those who were conductors on the Underground Railroad, exhibited principles of gender equality through their aggressive recruiting of both men and women.