During the 1800s, a cult of domesticity idealized the middle-class woman as a mother who stayed at home taking care of her kids and husband. She did not have a role outside the home. Many middle-class women disliked these expectations and protested the restrictions on their lives. Particularly, women wanted suffrage, or the right to vote.

In Great Britain women's suffrage attracted attention when John Stuart Mill presented a petition in Parliament calling for inclusion of women's suffrage in the Reform Act of 1867, which was rejected. Later in the same year, Lydia Becker (1827 - 1890) founded the first women's suffrage committee, in Manchester. Other committees were quickly formed, and in 1897 they united as the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies, with Millicent Garret Fawcett (1847 -1929) as president.
British suffragists faced opposition. Some opposers believed that women were too emotional to vote responsibly and others believed that women belonged at home, not in the government. Frustrated by this opposition, some women became more militant, or aggressive. Emmeline Pankhurst, assisted by her daughters Christabel and Sylvia, founded the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) in 1903. Her followers, called "suffragettes," heckled politicians, practiced civil disobedience, or refusal to obey certain laws, and were frequently arrested for causing riots. In February 1918, women over the age of 30 received the right to vote. Suffrage rights for men and women were equalized in 1928.

In your doc...

1. Why did this reform movement begin?
2. What were the goals of this reform movement?
3. What opposition did this reform movement face?
4. What were the tactics of this reform movement?
5. What impact did this reform movement have?