It was always the rule of thumb that if a woman wanted her opinion to be known, she would've had to be careful about what she said, how she said it, and who she said it to.  But it wasn't until the late 18th and early 19th century that women had the courage to overcome fears that society brought upon them through a variety of forms such as poetry and petitioning.  They had the strength to write about the hidden truth about women.  They had the strength to show what was kept secret.  They had the strength to voice their opinions in hopes of equality and change.  Women of all races and ages began letting their thoughts out once the trend started.  One woman, Phyllis Wheatly, even publilshed her first poem at 14.  The following sources give another insight to women and how their strength opened many new doors to early women writers. 

As far as African-American women, they made an even greater impact being that they were especially denied rights and they were definitely looked upon as different.  The overall movement of women stuck a foot in the door but it took more courage from women who come from slavery decent such as blacks to write about life as a slave or even anti-slavery petitioning for that matter.  One common misconception is that blacks have no form of family but an exerpt fom this text shows otherwise: 

Ann Plato, "Advice to Young Ladies" (1841)

Equivalence is the main point to recieve from this source.  A review on the novel Hope Leslie by Catharine Maria Sedgwick.  This story of womanhood better explains what exactly women had to go through in order to be taken seriously.  The main reason women began writing was to find some sort of equality to men.  Obviously their voices weren't loud enough and so this cry was in hopes of having the same rights as men which later progressed as far as suffrage rights and further today.

This review of The Madwoman in the Attic by Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar gives credit to women by justifying that not only did their literature begin to flourish, but also show the importance of Emily Dickenson to American women writers.  Her along with many English women writers were icons for women's early literarure in America.

According to this essay, Harriet Beecher Stowe's fascination with the idea of work gave people a different point of view as far as domesticity is concerned.  Obviously, there was a huge gap between men's and women's everyday jobs and responsiblities.  Men went to work each day while women took care of the house and cleaned.  Just like women blank strived for equality, Stowe hoped for workers (men and women) to be "self-helpful and capable of being self-supporting" so that it isn't primarily about gender but about actually working and having one boss. 

As you can see, women had many ways of expressing their opinons about certain issues.  From poetry to petitioning, women found a variety of ways to let themselves be heard.  These beginnings of women writers really altered a woman's place in society.  I could only imagine what rights women would have now if it weren't for these brave writer who took the first steps.