The new act, the 1870 Education Act allowed women to vote for school boards and I was a strong feminist. So I took part in the elections and ran for a position in the school boards. I was elected to the school board with Flora Stevenson, Lydia Becker, Emily Davies, and myself. I was determined to make changes for the schools and provide the things that the children would need to get a proper education. My fellow members, one of which was my long-time friend, and I felt confident to be in the school board, hopeful for a powerful change in the school system. This new act was a profound moment for me because it gave women more say in society and we could do things that we couldn't before. This was even more overwhelming because women that sent their children to school could have a saying to what they wanted their children to be experiencing in school. It gave me and other mothers more confidence in what our children would learn and how it would affect their future.


This new act allowed the board directors to make changes need in all schools including elementary and secondary. We would also be able to change or hold the fees that the students needed to pay for enrollment. This gave us a whole new power to control the fees that the families needed to pay or possibly none at all. The 1870 Education Act changed the way that education systems would be run.