In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries Venezuela undertook a few of the civil code reforms that would later be on the agenda in other countries, such as improving the inheritance rights of spouses, making the regime of separation of property an option at the time of marriage, and instituting reserved property for married women, in addition to civil divorce. Like Ecuador, it conducted these reforms in advance of significant socioeconomic change and the development of a women's movement. It was not until the transition to democracy that began in 1935 that women organized to demand greater rights. They achieved these relatively quickly, in 1942, since they had relatively less to achieve, and, moreover, their demands were less radical than feminists elsewhere. The country, nonetheless, was a pioneer in recognizing the property rights of women in consensual unions, a demand unique to Venezuelan women's groups. Employing the same broad coalition-building that led to successful civil code reform, women attained local-level suffrage shortly thereafter, and full political rights in 1947.