Women's suffrage was granted after about two decades of campaigning throughout New Zealand by women. The New Zealand branch of the Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) led by Anne Ward (1886-1887), Emma Packe (1887-1889), Catherine Fulton (1889-1892), and Annie Jane Schnackenberg (1892-1900) was particularly instrumental in the campaign. Influenced by the American Frances Willard of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union and the philosophy of thinkers like Harriet Taylor Mill and John Stuart Mill, the movement argued that women could bring morality into democratic politics. Kate Sheppard, a WCTU NZ activist, became the founding president of the National Council of Women of New Zealand in 1896 which advocated for political action for women's rights. Opponents argued instead that politics was outside women's 'natural sphere' of the home and family. Suffrage advocates countered that allowing women to vote would encourage policies which protected and nurtured families.