Accounts differ as to whether or not women were allowed in the English coffeehouses of the 17 and 18th centuries. Some claimed that women were banned, and others stated the opposite, but it seems that it was more along the rule that the coffeehouse was not the place where a respectable lady wanted to be seen. This didn't stop the men from spending much of their time in coffeehouses in favor of their homes.
If a woman was to get her coffee then, it was going to be at home. However, with the draw of the coffeehouse being a place of intellectual exchange and catching up with the news, the sheer number of men favoring the coffeehouse over their homes resulted in several satirical works alleging to be written by angry women who became coffeehouse widows.
That women soon grew tired of their absence is an understatement. "The Women's Petition Against Coffee" (1674) and "The Men's Answer to the Women's Petition Against Coffee" (1674) weren't the only protests although they are probably the most well-known documents of the period today. "Maidens Complaint against Coffee" (1663) and "The Ale-Wives Complaint, Against the Coffee-Houses" (1675) all protest the amount of time men spent in the coffeehouses.
Here, we have the two more well-known petitions: "The Women's Petition Against Coffee" and "The Men's Answer to the Women's Petition Against Coffee", reprinted here in their entirety.
