Sheffield Female Political Association

{{Short description|Earliest women's suffrage organisation in the UK}}

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{{Use British English|date=February 2024}}

The Sheffield Female Political Association was the first women's suffrage organisation in the United Kingdom."Knight, Anne", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

The reason as to why this group was formed was due to the 1832 Reform Act explicitly banning women from voting, as it defined a voter as a male person.

The group was founded in February 1851 by several Sheffield women who were also active in the Chartist movement, led by Anne Kent and Anne Knight.[http://www.pinn.net/~sunshine/whm2003/knight2.html Anne Knight (1786-1862)] {{webarchive|url=http://arquivo.pt/wayback/20090723234704/http://www.pinn.net/~sunshine/whm2003/knight2.html |date=2009-07-23 }} It also gained the support of Isaac Ironside's local Central Democratic Association.Jane Rendall, [http://www.worc.ac.uk/CHIC/women/rendell/glossary.htm Glossary: Women's Politics in Britain 1780-1870: Claiming Citizenship] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071213122646/http://www.worc.ac.uk/CHIC/women/rendell/glossary.htm |date=2007-12-13 }}

The association passed a resolution written by Abiah HigginbothamA. P. W. Robson, [http://www.leedstrinity.ac.uk/histcourse/suffrage/document/aprobsoa.htm The Founding of the National Society for Women's Suffrage 1866-1867] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070711153758/http://www.leedstrinity.ac.uk/histcourse/suffrage/document/aprobsoa.htm |date=2007-07-11 }} in support of the suffrage of adult women, and persuaded George Howard, 7th Earl of Carlisle to submit this as a petition to the House of Lords.Millicent Fawcett, Women's Suffrage: A Short History of a Great Movement This probably inspired Harriet Taylor Mill to write The Enfranchisement of Women.[http://www.pinn.net/~sunshine/whm2003/ht_mill4.html Harriet Taylor Mill (1807 - 1858)] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070414184944/http://www.pinn.net/~sunshine/whm2003/ht_mill4.html |date=2007-04-14 }}

Later in 1851, feminist activists Jeanne Deroin and Pauline Roland wrote to the group for support while imprisoned in France.Ed. Nancy Hewitt, [http://www.binghamton.edu/womhist/awrm/intro.htm Internationalizing Feminism in the 19th Century] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070409070016/http://www.binghamton.edu/womhist/awrm/intro.htm |date=2007-04-09 }}