Ezra Stiles Gannett, Channing's assistant and eventual successor at Federal Street Church, continued Channing's explorations of theological positions about social equality among races and among men and women.

In this 1857 sermon, Gannett stated, "While the true ground of equality between the sexes lies in those doctrines which Christ has established, the rightful position of women is asserted throughout the whole history of the Jewish people, from Miriam (Moses' sister) to the books of the Prophets."

In June 1863 at the St. Lawrence Association of Universalists (New York), Olympia Brown became the first woman ordained “with full denominational authority” by any denomination in America.Brown would serve in Universalist congregations throughout the nation, including Connecticut, Massachusetts, Ohio, and Wisconsin.

A staunch advocate of women’s rights, Brown co-founded the New England Woman’s Suffrage Association in 1868. While in Wisconsin, she served as president of the state Woman Suffrage Association for twenty-eight years. She was also vice-president of the National Woman Suffrage Association.

Another woman, Antoinette Brown Blackwell, was ordained a Congregational minister on September 15, 1853, but the ordination never received the authoritative support of the Congregational General Conference. (See Susan Hill Lindley, You Have Stept Out of Your Place: A History of Women and Religion in America, Louisville, Kentucky, Westminster John Knox Press, 1996.)