There is no evidence that Owen ever held loose ideas of the relations of the sexes, though such opinions were attributed to him. He believed that marriage should be founded on mutual sympathy and congeniality, and he wished the imagination to be excluded and judgment made the sole guide in such matters. This, like many of his teachings, seems equivocal; but he believed that where these prerequisites ceased to exist it should be possible to terminate a marriage. Owen and Maclure both believed fully in the equality of the sexes. New Harmony schools were co-educational, and women were admitted to all the councils of the society. It is not clear that they were always permitted to vote, though widows succeeded to the suffrages of their husbands. A woman’s society was organized, and is supposed to have been similar to literary clubs as now known, though there is but one reference to the organization in the _Gazette_--a notice of the postponement of a meeting in November, 1825. Owen’s refusal to make a formal transfer of his property to the community continued to be a cause of dissatisfaction. The founder spoke hopefully of the future, but he took care that his enthusiasm should not run away with his judgment, so he continued to hold his little principality in fee simple. When questioned as to his intentions in this particular, he replied, as officially reported in the _Gazette_ of August 30, 1826: “I shall be ready to form such a community whenever you are ready for it.... But progress must be made in community education before all parties can be prepared for a community of common property.” The assembly thereupon adopted a resolution that they meet three evenings in the week for community education, but this was evidently regarded by the members as a severe penalty to pay for the cause of socialism. Robert Dale Owen wrote that the meetings continued “with gradually lessening numbers.”