The petition was addressed to the President and Council of the Chemical Society. It highlighted that in the previous thirty years that there were "about 150 women" who had appeared as authors on some 300 papers published by the Society. It listed the number of papers in the Journal of the Chemical Society in the periods 1873 - 1882 (20 papers), 1883 - 1892 (33 papers), 1893 - 1902 (142 papers), and 1903 to August 1904 (50 papers). They continue that as the Society deemed it fit to publish the work completed by female chemists, that they should help support this work by enabling "free access to chemical literature and by the right to attend the meetings of the Society".