Advancement of Women, 1876

The Fourth Annual Congress of the Association for the Advancement of Women met in Philadelphia in 1876. Several Powelton women were members. Mrs. Edward Lewis (age 55) of 3234 Powelton Ave. (33th & Powelton) attended with her two daughters, Bertha (24) and Emily (18), and her sister-in-law, Charlotte (Mrs. Enoch) Lewis (51). E.R. (Mrs. Henry) McIlvain was a 56 year-old widow who lived at 3306 Baring. Also attending was Nellie B. Haral of 3402 Baring St.

Numerous papers were present at the conference. One was "The Need of Women in Science" by Maria Mitchell who wrote that “Women are needed in scientific work for the very reason that a woman’s method is different from that of a man. All her nice perceptions of minute details, all her delicate observation of color, of form, of shape, of change, and her capability of patient routine, would be of immense value in the collection of scientific facts.”

In "Women in Literature" by E.b. Duffy noted that “Thirty years ago there were two or three women editors in the world. To-day there are scores of them... Thirty years ago there were a few indifferent novels produced by women in England; scarcely one in this country.... To-day the novelists in America and England can be told off, considering not only in numbers, but excellence.... The field of literature is conquered for women.”