The Sheffield Female Political Association was the first women's suffrage

Women's suffrage

Women's suffrage or woman suffrage is the right of women to vote and to run for office. The expression is also used for the economic and political reform movement aimed at extending these rights to women and without any restrictions or qualifications such as property ownership, payment of tax, or...

 organisation in the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

.

The group was founded in February 1851 by several Sheffield

Sheffield

Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, and with some of its southern suburbs annexed from Derbyshire, the city has grown from its largely...

 women who were also active in the Chartist movement, led by Anne Kent and Anne Knight

Anne Knight

Anne Knight was a social reformer noted as a pioneer of feminism.-Family background:Anne Knight was the daughter of William Knight , a Chelmsford grocer and his wife Priscilla Allen...

. It also gained the support of Isaac Ironside

Isaac Ironside

Isaac Ironside was a British Chartist and socialist politician.-Early years:Born near Masbrough, Rotherham, Ironside grew up in Sheffield, the son of Samuel Ironside, a Wesleyan lay preacher, and Mary Bradbury...

's local Central Democratic Association

Central Democratic Association

The Central Democratic Association, also known as the Democratic Association or the Democrats, was a political party of Chartists which was prominent in Sheffield in the mid-nineteenth century.-Establishment:...

.

The Association passed a resolution written by Abiah Higginbotham in support of the suffrage of adult women, and persuaded George Howard, 7th Earl of Carlisle to submit this as a petition

Petition

A petition is a request to do something, most commonly addressed to a government official or public entity. Petitions to a deity are a form of prayer....

 to the House of Lords

House of Lords

The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster....

. This probably inspired Harriet Taylor Mill

Harriet Taylor Mill

Harriet Taylor Mill was a philosopher and women's rights advocate. Her second husband was John Stuart Mill, one of the pre-eminent thinkers of the 19th century...

 to write The Enfranchisement of Women.

Later in 1851, feminist activists Jeanne Deroin

Jeanne Deroin

Jeanne Deroin was a French socialist feminist.Born in Paris, Deroin became a seamstress. In 1831, she joined the followers of utopian socialist Henri de Saint-Simon...

 and Pauline Roland

Pauline Roland

Pauline Roland was a French feminist and socialist.Upon her mother's insistence, Roland received a good education and was introduced to the ideas of Claude Henri de Rouvroy, Comte de Saint-Simon, the founder of French socialism, by one of her teachers. She became an enthusiastic supporter of his...

wrote to the group for support while imprisoned in France.