A movement to fight for women's right to vote in the United Kingdom finally succeeded through acts of Parliament in 1918 and 1928.
In 1832, the Representation of the People Act (or First Reform Act) had passed into law which extended the franchise to various groups of property owning men, thus legally excluding women.
In 1872 the fight for women's suffrage became a national movement with the formation of the National Society for Women's Suffrage and later the more influential National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS). As well as in England, women's suffrage movements in Wales, Scotland and other parts of the United Kingdom gained momentum. The movements shifted sentiments in favour of woman suffrage by 1906.