Many another example of feminine initiative might be cited.  There was that serious, yet ridiculous scene of long ago when the women of Boston pinned up their dresses, took off their shoes, and waded about in the mud and slush fortifying Boston Neck.  Benjamin Tompson, a local poet, found the incident a source of merriment in his New England Crisis, 1675; but in a way it was a stern rebuke to the men who looked on and laughed at the women’s frantic effort to wield mud plaster.

    “A grand attempt some Amazonian Dames
    Contrive whereby to glorify their names. 
    A ruff for Boston Neck of mud and turfe,
    Reaching from side to side, from surf to surf,
    Their nimble hands spin up like Christmas pyes,
    Their pastry by degrees on high doth rise ... 
    The wheel at home counts in an holiday,
    Since while the mistress worketh it may play. 
    A tribe of female hands, but manly hearts,
    Forsake at home their pastry crust and tarts,
    To kneed the dirt, the samplers down they hurl,
    Their undulating silks they closely furl. 
    The pick-axe one as a commandress holds,
    While t’other at her awk’ness gently scolds. 
    One puffs and sweats, the other mutters why
    Can’t you promove your work so fast as I? 
    Some dig, some delve, and others’ hands do feel
    The little wagon’s weight with single wheel. 
    And lest some fainting-fits the weak surprize,
    They want no sack nor cakes, they are more wise...”

That simple-hearted, kindly French-American, St. John de Crevecoeur, has left us a description of the women of Nantucket in his Letters from an American Farmer, 1782, and if his account is trustworthy these women displayed business capacity that might put to shame many a modern wife.  Hear some extracts from his statement: 

“As the sea excursions are often very long, their wives in their absence are necessarily obliged to transact business, to settle accounts, and, in short, to rule and provide for their families.  These circumstances, being often repeated, give women the abilities as well as a taste for that kind of superintendency to which, by their prudence and good management, they seem to be in general very equal.  This employment ripens their judgment, and justly entitles them to a rank superior to that of other wives; ...  The men at their return, weary with the fatigues of the sea, ... cheerfully give their consent to every transaction that has happened during their absence, and all is joy and peace.  ’Wife, thee hast done well,’ is the general approbation they receive, for their application and industry....”

“...But you must not imagine from this account that the Nantucket wives are turbulent, of high temper, and difficult to be ruled; on the contrary, the wives of Sherburn, in so doing, comply only with the prevailing custom of the island:  the husbands, equally submissive