Why did Protestant Christianity and protestant women emerge as forces for social change?

This is a broad question, but there's no doubt Protestantism has been associated with various kinds of social change, though people naturally argue about this topic.
In 1905, sociologist Max Weber published an influential book called The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, in which he argued that the Protestant—particularly the Calvinist—work ethic led to the Industrial Revolution. The Industrial Revolution brought massive social change to the world, upending traditional relationships between the once powerful landed aristocracy and the rest of society. Protestants also tended to be frugal, Weber argued, and this allowed them to amass capital to invest in business, also leading to economic growth and hence, social change. Because they had the wealth to found charitable institutions, they left their mark on society. For example, Quakers instituted reforms in how the insane were treated, focusing more on cure and less on restraint.
Early on, dissident groups such as the Quakers pressed for social change so that they could practice their version of Protestant Christianity without facing arrest. The Quakers, called The Religious Society of Friends, fought for religious freedom so they would not be jailed for not paying their tithes to the Church of England, and not have their property seized when they refused to take oaths. They also wanted the right to marry without a priest officiating. Eventually, they won these rights. The also brought and implemented ideas of religious freedom to the New World when they founded Pennsylvania. The principle of religious toleration both ended the bloody European religious wars of the seventeenth century and became part of the U.S. Constitution, and so was an important innovation.
Protestant women emerged as a force for social change for several reasons. First, many Protestant denominations granted women more power and equality than they had had in the Roman Catholic Church. Methodism and Quakerism, for example allowed women to preach.
Second, Protestantism privileged the individual's direct relationship with God. Protestantism encouraged the examination of conscience and following the dictates of the individual conscience. When Protestant women, who were used to having a voice in their churches and to value their consciences, saw social injustice in the wider world, they were more likely to feel empowered to speak out about it. For example, Quaker Elizabeth Fry spoke out against and worked successfully to institute prison reforms, despite severe personal criticisms directed at her. In the United States, Quaker women were often at the forefront of movements for the abolition of slavery women's rights because they were taught that all people equally possessed the light of God and believed they should be treated equally under the law. Harriet Beecher Stowe grew up in a Calvinist household and felt compelled by conscience to write Uncle Tom's Cabin, an extremely influential anti-slavery novel.