1848 is usually remembered as the year of revolutions in Europe. Those revolutions – although sweeping across Europe – changed little. At the same time however, something of far greater moment was taken place, two small conferences. Although very few noticed at the time, a central idea of those conferences has already unfolded in unimagined transformation of human society across the planet. As Louise Dittmar, an advocate of the time, wrote in 1849: The freedom of women is the greatest revolution, not just of our own day, but of all time, since it breaks fetters which are as old as the world. And indeed in 1848, the emancipation of women…