Was there an Anglo-American Feminist Movement in the Earlier Twentieth Century?

Emily Balch, a distinguished American academic and pacifist, once remarked that 'If Europeans seem to Americans to find it too difficult to believe, too difficult to act, Americans seem to Europeans too naive, impulsive and idealistic, not to say sentimental, exaggerated, unstable, puzzling, incalculable' .1 Judgements such as Balch's are not uncommon. So why, then, should anyone expect to find an Anglo-American women's movement either before or after 1900?