Quakers

===Role of women===
[[File:SugarGroveFriendsDivision.jpg|thumb|left|[[Sugar Grove Conservative Friends Meeting House]], built in 1870 in [[Indiana]], with an openable partition between male and female sections]]
{{Main|Quaker views on women}}
In the 1650s, individual Quaker women prophesied and preached publicly, developing charismatic personae and spreading the sect. This practice was bolstered by the movement's firm concept of spiritual equality for men and women.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Visionary Women: Ecstatic Prophecy in Seventeenth-Century England |last=Mack |first=Phyllis |publisher=University of California Press |year=1995 |location=Berkeley |pages=165–211}}</ref> Moreover, Quakerism initially was propelled by the nonconformist behaviours of its followers, especially women who broke from social norms.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Mack |first1=Phyllis |title=Visionary Women: Ecstatic Prophecy in Seventeenth-Century England |date=1995 |publisher=University of California Press |location=Berkeley |page=3}}</ref> By the 1660s, the movement had gained a more structured organisation, which led to separate women's meetings.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Trevett |first1=Christine |title=Quaker Women Prophets in England and Wales, 1650–1700 |date=2000 |publisher=[[Edwin Mellen Press]] |location=[[Lewiston, New York]]|page=12}}</ref> Through the women's meetings, women oversaw domestic and community life, including marriage.<ref name="Levy 78" /> From the beginning, Quaker women, notably [[Margaret Fell]], played an important role in defining Quakerism.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Levy |first=Barry |title=Quakers and the American Family |pages=69, 221}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Bacon |first=Margaret |title=Mothers of Feminism |pages=24}}</ref> Others active in proselytising included [[Mary Penington]], [[Mary Mollineux]] and [[Barbara Blaugdone]].<ref>{{Cite book |title=Persecution and Pluralism: Calvinists and Religious Minorities in Early Modern Europe 1550–1700 |editor1-first=Richard |editor1-last=Bonney |editor2-first=David J. B. |editor2-last=Trim |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jQJuObBQerIC |publisher=Peter Lang |year=2006|isbn=9783039105700 }}</ref> Quaker women published at least 220 texts during the 17th century.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Gill |first1=Catie |title=Women in the Seventeenth-century Quaker Community: a Literary Study of Political Identities, 1650–1700 |date=2005 |publisher=Ashgate |location=Burlington, VT|page=1}}</ref> However, some Quakers resented the power of women in the community. In the early years of Quakerism, George Fox faced resistance in developing and establishing women's meetings. As controversy increased, Fox did not fully adhere to his agenda. For example, he established the London Six Weeks Meeting in 1671 as a regulatory body, led by 35 women and 49 men.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Mack |first1=Phyllis |title=Visionary Women: Ecstatic Prophecy in Seventeenth-Century England |date=1995 |publisher=University of California Press |location=Berkeley|page=289}}</ref> Even so, conflict culminated in the Wilkinson–Story split, in which a portion of the Quaker community left to worship independently in protest at women's meetings.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Janney |first=Samuel |title=History of the Religious Society of Friends, from its Rise to the Year 1828 |url=https://archive.org/details/historyreligiou07janngoog |year=1861 |publisher=Hayes & Zell |location=Philadelphia |pages=[https://archive.org/details/historyreligiou07janngoog/page/n303 298]}}</ref> After several years, this schism became largely resolved, testifying to the resistance of some within the Quaker community and to the spiritual role of women that Fox and Margaret Fell had encouraged. Particularly within the relatively prosperous Quaker communities of the eastern United States, the focus on the child and "holy conversation" gave women unusual community power, although they were largely excluded from the market economy. With the Hicksite–Orthodox split of 1827–1828, Orthodox women found their spiritual role decreased, while Hicksite women retained greater influence.