I learned from Prof. Joseph Schatzmiller of the University of Toronto that in the time of Maimonides, the Jewish women of Cairo refused to go to the mikvah until their demands for certain halakhic leniencies were met.  Despite blustering from their husbands and the Rambam, they apparently got their way eventually.  (I wish I could be more specific--I found a few very brief references to that incident online, so apparently it was historically true.)