Dame Millicent Fawcett: Pioneer of Women’s Suffrage
Dame Millicent Garrett Fawcett (11 June 1847 – 5 August 1929) was an English political activist and writer. She led Britain’s largest women’s rights association, the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS), from 1897 to 1919 and became the first woman honoured by a statue in Parliament Square in 2018, a century after women gained the vote.
Early Life and Education
Fawcett was born on 11 June 1847 in Aldeburgh, Suffolk, the eighth of ten children born to Newson Garrett, a businessman from Leiston, and his wife Louisa Dunnell. Her father had converted from Conservatism to Gladstonian Liberalism and encouraged his children to read widely, speak their minds, and engage with politics. Her elder sister Elizabeth Garrett Anderson became Britain’s first female doctor and introduced Millicent to Emily Davies, a suffragist who would shape her early thinking about women’s education and voting rights.
At age twelve, Fawcett was sent to London to attend a private boarding school in Blackheath. She later attended sermons by Frederick Denison Maurice, an Anglican priest whose socially progressive views influenced her religious outlook. In 1865, she attended a lecture by John Stuart Mill, and the following year she and Emily Davies collected signatures for a petition asking Parliament to enfranchise women householders.
Career and Achievements
John Stuart Mill introduced Fawcett to Henry Fawcett, a Liberal Member of Parliament, whom she married on 23 April 1867. Henry had been blinded in a shooting accident in 1858, and Millicent served as his secretary while pursuing her own writing career and managing two households, one in Cambridge and one in London. Their marriage was characterized by what contemporaries called “perfect intellectual sympathy.” Their only child, Philippa, was born in 1868 and became the first woman to obtain top score in the Cambridge Mathematical Tripos exams in 1890.
Fawcett’s public work began in 1868 when she joined the London Suffrage Committee, followed by a speech at the first public pro-suffrage meeting held in London in 1869. She published Political Economy for Beginners in 1870, a work that became “wildly successful” and ran to ten editions over forty-one years. In 1871, she co-founded Newnham Hall (later Newnham College) at Cambridge with Anne Clough and served on its Council from 1881 to 1909, advancing higher education for women. She was also a governor of Bedford College, London, now Royal Holloway.
After her husband’s death on 6 November 1884, Fawcett temporarily withdrew from public life but resumed her activism in 1885. She became a key member of the Women’s Local Government Society and joined the Liberal Unionist Party in 1886 to oppose Irish Home Rule. From 1897 to 1919, she led the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies, Britain’s largest women’s rights organization, campaigning for suffrage through legal change rather than militant action.
Notable Events and Milestones
In 1870, Fawcett published her influential Political Economy for Beginners, which established her as a serious writer on economic matters. She contributed an article to Macmillan’s Magazine in 1871 on single transferable voting. In 1872, she and her husband published Essays and Lectures on Social and Political Subjects, containing eight of her essays.
A significant personal moment came in 1890 when Vauxhall Park in Lambeth was formally opened by the Prince of Wales. Fawcett had been an instigator for the park’s creation and gave a speech at Lambeth Palace during the campaign. Her leadership of the NUWSS from 1897 to 1919 coincided with the final push toward women’s suffrage, culminating in the Representation of the People Act. In 2018, a century after that act, Fawcett became the first woman to be honoured by a statue in Parliament Square.
Awards and Honors
Fawcett was made a Dame, receiving the title Dame Millicent Garrett Fawcett. In 2018, she was honoured with a statue in Parliament Square, the first woman to receive this recognition in that location.
Additional Resources
Readers seeking more detailed information about Fawcett’s life and legacy can consult her Wikipedia biography and other historical archives dedicated to the women’s suffrage movement. Her published works, including Political Economy for Beginners and her essays on representation and social reform, remain accessible to scholars and general readers interested in nineteenth-century political thought and women’s activism.
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