Over time, the suffragettes managed to gain some improvements in some areas of conflict, so the campaign changed direction to "safeguard" these rights. A 1907 propaganda leaflet said, "No race or society can have its interest properly safeguarded in the legislative of a country unless it is represented by direct suffrage". They managed to achieve a right to custody of their children over the age of 7 and the right for women to request custody of their children if their husband was convicted of adultery. Also the married Women's Property Acts of 1882 and 1893 granted women full legal control of all property that they had owned at the time of marriage or that they had earnt through their own means. Plus more educational opportunities became available, in 1848 Queens College; London opened to train women as governesses. Before this Universities wouldn't accept women, and schools for women were almost non-existent until the middle of the nineteenth century. Toward the end of the nineteenth century women were slowly admitted into the Universities but it would be a few more years until they were allowed to study and gain a degree in that subject. These rights were particularly important to safeguard, as these were some of the main gains women had made and also these were the ones, which if they succeeded in gaining equality would entitle them to the right to vote. Also the fact that women were gradually allowed into Universities helped to dispel common belief that they were intellectually inferior to men and should stay at home as a housewife, as this was all they were good at. In an equal society these University degrees would also give women a greater role in society one that many thought they were incapable of.
Now that the Women's property acts had allowed women to "own" property they felt that as the electoral register was decided by how much property a person owned women who owned sufficient property should be allowed the right to vote. As this was not the case and was unlikely to change women felt they were the victims of a sexual double standard, as any man educated or not over the age of 21, and who owned enough land/property could vote. However women over the age of 21 could not vote, even if they were educated and therefore cleverer than an uneducated male voter was, also even if they owned they required amount of land/property they still couldn't vote as they were women. They believed that they were subject to the same laws as males and therefore should have the same privileges as men did especially the vote. Moreover women were subject to taxes as were men (surely they should have the vote as they pay for parliament). More said that if history had allowed women to be queens (as the reigning monarch was Queen Victoria) surely this would prove that they were fit to undertake the role of a monarch they should be rewarded with the vote. Also to add to the injustice of the sexual double standard men who were lunatics and convicts were not allowed to vote. Women believed that they were being compared to these people in the fact that they had no right to vote. The women also felt strongly that the only way to protect their newly gained votes was to have the right to vote, and so this was what their campaign continued to focus on.
During the period of campaigning women also succeeded in gaining greater employment opportunities. Before the women's suffrage campaign began few women worked and if they did it would be because they were most likely poor and unmarried. They occupied jobs deemed fit for them such as in the textile industry; here the pay was poor and conditions terrible. In 1881 the census stated that there were "one million women in service, 520,000 in textile mills and 380,000 in the clothing trade". However women wanted to end this gender divide and be able to work where they liked. The women's suffrage campaign did manage to succeed in gaining what was seen as some improvement but not enough. The work of Florence Nightingale during the Crimean war and the revolutionary care that she provided made this once non-respectable career path more attractive and open to women, as a result many nursing schools were set up to female nurses. Conditions in the industries slowly improved however in the 1880's more jobs became available to women. The invention of the typewriter in the 1860's revolutionised office work and so the demand for typists grew. As well by the early 1900's many women had obtained jobs in telephone exchange and thousands more were employed as shop assistants. Despite these improvements women regarded them as menial and still less important than men's jobs which also commanded a higher salary. However many of these jobs were only open to single women, as it was believed that the woman should stay at how and look after the household. Women wanted to change these inequalities surrounding the issues of jobs and they felt that the only way for more employment opportunities to be open to women was if women had the right to vote, so that they could vote in favour of any changes to employment of women.
Women had also achieved some improvements in the education system. Before 1870 the education system just like the employment system was offering few opportunities to women. Universities would not accept women and women could not go to school to specialise in a subject(s), they were given a brief general education then that was it for their education, despite the fact that a boys education would be far more detailed and longer lasting, with the opportunity to go to university, get a degree and then secure a high paid job. During the 19th Century, a few women were allowed into university. But this soon stopped happening as public pressure with their "old fashioned" views forced the Universities to expel their female students. One example of this was when in 1869 Sophia Jex-Blake and four other females obtained places at Edinburgh University to study medicine, but were expelled shortly due to public pressure and it was decided the University did not have the right to except female Students. Even if they were allowed to stay women would study the same as men and therefore be just as knowledgeable on that subject; they were not allowed a degree, another example of the sexual double standard. Nevertheless as time went on some universities did give degrees to women and some even opened special colleges for women, like Girton College, part of Cambridge University. Likewise many more girls schools were opened to give girls a more thorough education, such as Queens College in London which opened in 1848 to train girls from the age of thirteen to become governesses. As the education of women improved they believed that, as they were educated, and therefore just as able as men were. Unlike what many men thought they were capable of. Women saw it as unfair that a clever and able women wasn't allowed the right to vote, just because she was a women, whilst an uneducated man could vote. They saw it as that because they wee educated, women would be more aware of what was good for everyone rather than the uneducated man who could vote, and so it would be better for the country as they could make an informed decision whilst the uneducated man couldn't also it would be a way to get more education and other opportunities for women. However they believed that the government didn't want to give them the vote as it feared when it came to a general election the women's voting might help bring about a change in the majorities of the House of Commons.
Many of the women who participated in the campaign for women's suffrage were inspired by writers and prominent members of women's suffrage organisations like the NUWSS and the WSPU. One such prominent figure was Mary Wollstonecraft; she was one of the few early feminists and was a radical with very strong views on what the problem was, and what a campaign for women's suffrage must do in order to achieve those aims. Unlike what was stereotypically thought about her she was highly intellectual, and had written many letters, essays, novels and political tracts, and had also witnessed the French Revolution, which had undoubtedly made her views even stronger. She inspired many women to attend meeting of Women's Suffrage organisations to campaign for their rights.
In Conclusion, a campaign for women's suffrage began in the years after 1870 as women had realised that they could do something about the conditions and their life that they were forbidden from doing. Many women felt that they had to change the gender divide across the nation, to gain rights for women in their home lives and to help protect them from their husbands where needed, to gain economic and social rights, and most importantly to gain the right to vote so that their views could be properly expressed and dealt with by Parliament, which would safeguard their current rights and help them to gain more or to improve the ones they currently had.
