'Persons', not 'men'

In 1867, feminists present a petition to the MP and political reformer John Stuart Mill, asking him to push for – in the wording of the second Reform Bill, which extends voting rights to almost all working men – the replacement of the word 'man' with 'person' in the definition of eligible voters. Despite Mill's best efforts, this measure is defeated.

However, three years later, another groundbreaking act for wedded women is passed. The Married Women's Property Act allows women to keep their earnings and inherit personal property and small sums of money. Their husbands still own everything else. In 1873, custody rights are also improved, giving mothers, even if they are adulterers, the possibility of winning custody of children up to the age of 16. In 1882, another Married Women's Property Act extends their legal rights of ownership to real estate.

In 1884, British women receive mixed messages. Even though the third Reform Act fails to enfranchise women, the Matrimonial Causes Act removes the requirement for a wife to wait two years before petitioning her deserting, adulterous husband for divorce. Two years later, mothers are given the automatic right to custody of their children on the death of the fathers.