During the closing decades of the nineteenth century, educated and politically progressive women in London saw the reading room of the British Museum's library as offering tremendous opportunities: to think through their ideas with the help of research, to discuss their ideas with like-minded friends, and to wield influence by spreading their ideas. Merely gaining access to the reading room defined individual women as public scholars, for to get a reading ticket they had to describe their research needs and supply a recommendation. They would then use the reading room to gain the intellectual authority and professionalism that come from research; to share in that 'social life of the intellect' that an 1887 article had recommended to women; and (taking advantage of their conspicuous visibility as a minority presence in the reading room) to enact their identities as public intellectuals. For these women, the reading room offered a liberating opportunity to define themselves in relation to public discourse. For social activist Beatrice Potter Webb, the reading room offered entry into the otherwise masculine world of public policy. During the 1890s, she spent long hours there, researching trade unions. Access to the library enabled her to gather the facts that in her view could alone shape future policy.