Women who ran households in the absence of men became more assertive. ABIGAIL ADAMS, wife of John, became an early advocate of women's rights when she prompted her husband to "REMEMBER THE LADIES" when drawing up a new government. As in the case of the abolition of slavery, changes for women would not come overnight. But the American Revolution ignited these changes. Education and respect would lead to the emergence of a powerful, outspoken middle class of women. By the mid nineteenth century