It got so widespread because it was introduced during a period when secular rationalism was an influential topic. People's dependency on the church to be their central focus began to dwindle. U.S. states were religiously divided and ministers like George Whitefield, Jonathan Edwards began preaching on how humans were sinners and people needed to ask forgiveness. Overall message was to reawaken the Christian faith and go back to the times when religion was the center focus of peoples' lives. This encouraged everyone to be close to God not just a minister. New religious denominations formed from this event. This unified the colonies but caused division to those that didn't support it.
One of the two major goals that the National Organization for Women worked toward when it was first founded was getting the federal government to actually enforce the new anti-discrimination laws that were supposed to be helping women.
