Detour from 19th-Century Science to Suffrage

My great-grandmother was one of the "she-devils" of Western Pennsylvania suffrage, Lucy Kennedy:

The other "she-devil" was her sister, Eliza, here shown with her recipe for Suffrage Angel Cake:

If I made ANGEL cake I can't be a she-devil now can I?

My family is in discussion with the Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh to bring a collection of their belongings (1910s dresses, correspondence with nationally famous leaders of the movement, awards, flatware) now dispersed among the family back to the natal city, perhaps to inform an exhibit. 

I tried on every single one of these dresses, of course. To get into them and be comfortable I would have had to willingly either not ever breathe in, or lose a rib. That they marched and demanded civil rights in them?  How? When for me even pulling on sweatpants sometimes feels like a stretch. What's the official start date for the acceptability of wearing a housedress to smash the patriarchy? 45?