Margaret Fell (1614-1702) was one of the early Quakers, known as the Society of Friends. Her home, called Swarthmore Hall, became the base for the early network of traveling Friends, at a time when they were being hunted down by the English government. After her first husband died, she married George Fox, the founder of the Quaker movement.

Margaret wrote and published a pamphlet, called “Women’s speaking justified,” that defended the Friends’ then controversial claim that women should be free to speak in worship on the same basis as men. That was radical for that day.