Over one hundred fifty years ago, champions of women's rights in the United States, Britain, France, and Germany formed the world's earliest international feminist movement. This is the first book to tell their story. From Seneca Falls, New York to Paris, from London to small towns in Germany, early feminists united to fight for the cause of women. At the height of the Victorian period, they insisted their sex deserved full political equality, called for a new kind of marriage based on companionship, claimed the right to divorce and to get custody of their children, and argued that an unjust economic system forced women into poorly paid jobs. They rejected the traditional view that women's subordination was preordained, natural, and universal. Now, restoring these daring activists' achievements to history, this work passes on their inspiring and empowering message to today's new generation of feminists.--From publisher description.