Reform: The Role Of Social Reform In Britain

Throughout history there have been great social changes whenever it came to the rights that privileged citizens held over others. As disparages between social classes grows there is an outcry for the same privileges that had long been privy to a certain percentage of the population to be shared. Great Britain however began to change in regards to this social norm when the Reform Bills were introduced. In Britain the Reform Bills were brought into being for the sake of suffrage regardless of class in society. They were key part in leading up to the events that would change how voting and a person’s right to vote would be viewed. The Reform Bills brought changes to the government in regards to the common folks, advanced the rights of the people, …show more content…
The first of the Reform Act, known as the Reform Act of 1832 was the big mover and shaker of the British government, including setting up a base for the further reforms. “The first Reform Bill was necessitated chiefly by glaring inequalities in representation between traditionally enfranchised rural areas and the rapidly growing cities of newly industrial England”(Encyclopedia Britannica, Reform Bill) . It brought up the need for the proper representation of boroughs to keep foul play out of politics. The boroughs were not as equally represented as they could be due in fact to the disparity of the different sizes of boroughs and their chief governors. Since it was chiefly certain that boroughs brought the need to necessitate such a ruling or the government would face a huge outcry on its hands. It also transferred the privileges “rotten boroughs” had to equally distribute them to underrepresented boroughs. The rotten boroughs often under the thumb of the nobility were known to be sparsely populated yet had many prime ministers whilst the highly populated ones such as Manchester often had one or none for that matter. The Act served to completely reform the traditional electoral system as well as disenfranchising fifty-six boroughs in order to compensate for the earlier unbalance system. Although in the end the First Act …show more content…
The acts with their compounded effects granted more than half of the British population with a sway of what they could say in the election of officials and political matters of their government, there were still many who were not granted such a reprieve. Although reprieve was not granted by the Acts themselves they did lead to the path onto which reprieve would eventually be granted. Women in many cultures in the past as well as now were seen as unfit for any involvement in a field where it was considered a man’s world. However seeing all that the changes that were enacted in order to granted civil men the ability to vote this should have therefore made it certain that there was no point to granting certain rights to women even with their monarch being a woman. After years of peaceful protest efforts to get the right to vote, women had still not gotten anywhere with this. It was not until radical activities like the ones committed by the newly formed Women’s Social and Political Union whose cause was to draw attention to the cause of women suffrage did things start to get underway. The women’s movement gained attention during the years of 1880 to 1914 however even then women did not gain the right to vote immediately and even then in nations such as Great Britain and the United States and did the movement pick up gradual success. Although there were general setbacks women were finally starting to get what they wanted as more European countries including Great