Many female maternal reformers, who sought to protect women's defined spheres of motherhood, education, philanthropy, and civil service; felt that women were the better sex for preserving British society through social service to their communities rather than by meddling with politics. Women considered themselves as less able to participate in politics and that to do so was women just imitating men, instead of being "real women." Some feared that the right to vote would introduce uninformed women in making decisions on important political matters. Since Britain was in the process of colonizing other regions around the globe, some viewed the right to vote as a threat to their imperial power as it would make the British look weak by other nations who were male oriented still. Some suffragist female groups developed militant and violent tactics which tarnished the image of women as innocent people that the anti-suffragists had been striving to preserve. Anti-suffragists used theses acts as reasons to show that women were mentally unable to handle political matters and that both genders had different strengths.