I’ve finally managed to get around the London clock with George Augustus Sala, on whom more here and here, and was interested to note (this is 1859) remember, the hostility to any form of women’s organisation that he notes:
I must say that it is a subject for sincere congratulations that there are not ladies’ clubs. We have been threatened with them sometimes, but they have always been nipped in the bud. It is curious to see how fiercely this tolerant, liveral, large-headed creature, Man, has waged war against the slightest attempt to establish a club on the part of the gentler sex. … The Tyrant Man is even, I am informed, disposed to look with jealousy on the “committees of ladies” which exist in connestion with some deserving charities, and on the “Dorcas societies” and “sewing circles” of provincial towns; and all meetings to advocate the rights of woman, he utterly abhors.
(p. 213)
But of course that hostility means there must have been women trying to get together.
About