ABSTRACT
In the last few years it has become an established consensus among German women's history scholars that the first organized German women's movement had its origins in the religious dissenting movement of the 1840s. Depending on which German state one looks at, women constituted between 30 and 40 per cent of the membership, and the high level of female participation was undoubtedly a response to dissenting leaders' active concern to address and include women. Male dissenters did routinely call for greater equality for women within marriage, and for a broadening of women's spheres of activity. But their calls for women's emancipation were always coupled with a celebration of marital companionship and with a reaffirmation of women's difference from men. Women were understood to be the backbone of the traditional Christian churches, and no upstart religious movement could afford to ignore this constituency.
