Woman in the Nineteenth Century and Kindred Papers Relating to the Sphere, Condition and Duties, of Woman Margaret Fuller Edited by her brother, Arthur B. Fuller. With an introduction by Horace Greeley. Woman in the Nineteenth Century is a book by American journalist, editor, and women's rights advocate Margaret Fuller. Originally published in July 1843 in The Dial magazine as "The Great Lawsuit. Man versus Men. Woman versus Women", it was later expanded and republished in book form in 1845. It has been thought desirable that such papers of Margaret Fuller Ossoli as pertained to the condition, sphere and duties of Woman, should be collected and published together. The present volume contains, not only her "Woman in the Nineteenth Century,"--which has been before published, but for some years out of print, and inaccessible to readers who have sought it,--but also several other papers, which have appeared at various times in the Tribune and elsewhere, and yet more which have never till now been published. My free access to her private manuscripts has given to me many papers, relating to Woman, never intended for publication, which yet seem needful to this volume, in order to present a complete and harmonious view of her thoughts on this important theme. I have preferred to publish them without alteration, as most just to her views and to the reader; though, doubtless, she would have varied their expression and form before giving them to the press.

Women in the nineteenth century had it hard. That's what Margaret Fuller's book Woman in the Nineteenth Century is all about. Ladies in the days of yore couldn't vote, they couldn't own property in the way that men could, and they were pretty much confined to being housewives for their entire lives. It's this very unsavory state of gender relations that Fuller criticizes in the above passage. Fuller, of course, was an outspoken women's rights activist. Not only did she write about this stuff-she herself was a woman who managed to rebel against many of the conventions of her time. Her criticism of gender hierarchies and relationships in the above passage shows how important social reform was not only to her, but to other Transcendentalists, too. Like her peers, Fuller looked at her society critically, and she didn't like what she saw.