Britain, Women's Suffrage Campaign

Abstract

The British organized women's suffrage campaign began in the mid‐1860s when a reform bill was under consideration that would expand the electorate. John Stuart Mill, a member of Parliament (MP) and a prominent women's suffrage advocate, agreed to introduce a women's suffrage amendment to the bill if the women's groups would generate a petition supporting that reform. Suffrage societies were formed in London and Manchester and provided Mill with a petition requesting women's suffrage with 1,499 signatures. Mill proposed his amendment when the 1867 Reform Bill was under consideration by the House of Commons, but it was easily defeated. Some MPs thought the idea of women voting was ludicrous.