Millicent Fawcett

Millicent Fawcett – Life, Activism & Legacy

: Discover the life of Dame Millicent Garrett Fawcett (1847-1929), the leading British suffragist, writer, and peaceful reformer who guided the movement for women’s voting rights in the Britain through constitutional advocacy.

Introduction

Dame Millicent Garrett Fawcett (June 11, 1847 – August 5, 1929) was a prominent British political activist, writer, and feminist leader. She is best known for her leadership of the non-militant suffrage movement in the UK, her advocacy for women’s education, and her belief in achieving reform through reasoned argument, incremental change, and legal channels. Under her firm but moderate direction, the suffragist cause gained significant ground during her lifetime.

Early Life and Family

Millicent Garrett was born on 11 June 1847 in Aldeburgh, Suffolk, England, the eighth of ten children of Newson Garrett, a merchant, and his wife Louisa (née Dunnell).

Millicent’s older sister, Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, achieved fame as the first woman in Britain to qualify as a physician.

At age 12, Millicent was sent to a private boarding school in Blackheath, London.

From early on, Millicent Garrett displayed an aptitude for writing, social reform, and civic engagement. She and her sister participated in the Kensington Society, a discussion group of educated women who debated issues like women’s education and parliamentary reform.

Marriage, Personal Life & Entrance into Activism

In April 1867, Millicent married Henry Fawcett, a Liberal Member of Parliament who had been blinded in an accident years earlier.

In 1868, their daughter Philippa Fawcett was born.

Millicent also published Political Economy for Beginners in 1870, a work intended to help general readers understand economics and public policy.

After Henry’s death in 1884, Millicent withdrew somewhat from personal obligations and devoted increasing energy to activism, writing, and public leadership.

Activism & Leadership

Women’s Education & Early Reforms

Millicent Fawcett was a committed advocate for women’s access to higher education. She was involved in the founding of Newnham College, Cambridge (officially founded in 1871) and later served on its governing council. Bedford College, London, an institution for women’s higher education.

She was also active in social reform causes beyond suffrage: promoting rights of married women (property rights), opposing laws that treated women differently (such as the Contagious Diseases Acts), pressing for divorce and sexual morality reforms, and seeking to regulate child marriage and child protection.

Suffrage Work & the NUWSS

Fawcett’s most enduring accomplishment was her leadership in the women’s suffrage movement, especially via constitutional, nonviolent methods. She sought to persuade public opinion and Parliament through petitions, debates, lobbying, and education rather than militant or violent tactics.

In 1897, various regional women’s suffrage societies merged to form the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS). Fawcett played a central role in that coalition.

She coined (or used) the slogan: “Law-abiding suffragists” to distinguish her movement from the more radical suffragette wing (led by the Pankhursts).

The NUWSS organized high-profile processions, such as the Mud March of 1907, and coordinated large assemblies, lobbying campaigns, and public outreach.

During World War I, Fawcett and the NUWSS aligned their efforts to support the war (though noncombatant), pointing to women’s contributions in wartime roles as further justification for suffrage.

In 1918, the Representation of the People Act granted suffrage to women over 30 who met property or husband-owner qualifications. Fawcett viewed this as a milestone. Representation of the People (Equal Franchise) Act) but by then she had stepped back publicly.

After 1919, she relinquished leadership of the NUWSS (which evolved into groups working for broader equal citizenship).

Writings and Intellectual Contributions

Millicent Fawcett was a prolific writer. Some of her significant works include:

• Political Economy for Beginners (1870) — her accessible introduction to economic ideas

• Essays and Lectures on Social and Political Subjects (co-authored with her husband)

• Janet Doncaster (1875) — a novel

• The Women’s Victory – and After: Personal Reminiscences (1911-1918) (1920)

• What I Remember (1924) — reflections on decades of the women’s movement and her personal involvement

• Women’s Suffrage: A Short History of a Great Movement (1924)

• Biographical essays such as Josephine Butler: Her Work and Principles (with Ethel Turner)

Her writing combined clarity, moral conviction, and intellectual discipline. She used it to educate, persuade, and document the movement.

Personality, Style & Philosophy

Millicent Fawcett’s approach to activism was rooted in moderation, patience, and respect for constitutional institutions. She believed that the best way to win lasting reforms was not through confrontation or violence, but through reasoned persuasion, organized lobbying, public education, and democratic methods.

She often publicly distanced herself from militant suffragettes (like the Pankhursts) when their tactics (e.g. property damage, hunger strikes) threatened to alienate support.

Fawcett emphasized education as key to women’s emancipation: expanded schooling, university access, professional opportunities. She viewed the ballot not as an endpoint, but as a tool for broader equality in law, society, and civil rights.

Her demeanor in public and private accounts is often described as dignified, steady, and intellectually generous. She willingly engaged with critics, believed in dialogue, and maintained integrity even in contentious debates.

Notable Quotes

Here are several noteworthy quotations that reflect her values and vision:

“I have throughout my public life held that we must not decry the democratic method of the extension of the franchise, constitutional agitation, because it is tedious, difficult, slow.”
— What I Remember (paraphrased)

“Courage calls to courage everywhere.”
— from a speech in 1920, now inscribed on her Parliament Square statue banner

“I cannot say I became a suffragist. I always was one, from the time I was old enough to think at all about the principles of Representative Government.”
— Her own reflection on her commitment

“We must persuade, we must organize; we must be patient, we must be persistent.”
— Paraphrase of her frequently expressed attitude toward reform (various speeches)

Legacy & Commemoration

Millicent Fawcett’s contributions left profound marks on British society and the feminist movement:

• In 1925, she was appointed Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire (GBE).

• She received an honorary doctorate from the University of Birmingham in 1919.

• In 1932, a memorial with inscription was unveiled for her and her husband in Westminster Abbey.

• In 2018, a bronze statue of Millicent Fawcett was erected in Parliament Square, London, making her the first woman honored with a statue there. The banner she holds bears her motto: “Courage calls to courage everywhere.”

• The Fawcett Society, a prominent UK gender equality organization, bears her name.

• Her archives are preserved in The Women’s Library at the London School of Economics; the LSE renamed one of its buildings Fawcett House in her honor.

• Millicent Fawcett Hall (opened in 1929) stands in Westminster as a space for women's debate and scholarship.

• Her name is commemorated in schools, societies, and public memory as a key figure in women’s suffrage and civic rights.

Lessons & Takeaways

1. Persistence and patience can move hearts and laws
   Fawcett’s lifelong commitment shows that even slow, incremental effort can yield lasting change—especially when backed by argument, organization, and moral conviction.

2. Moderate methods can carry moral weight
   Her nonviolent, constitutional approach demonstrated that reform need not rely on extremism to have impact.

3. Education is foundational to reform
   Her work in founding and supporting women's colleges and promoting intellectual access underscores the link between knowledge and empowerment.

4. Leadership demands both principle and pragmatism
   Fawcett navigated internal movement divisions (militancy vs. moderation) and external political pressures, yet maintained clarity of purpose.

5. Symbols matter
   Her statue, her writings, and her speeches continue to inspire new generations, reminding us that symbolic recognition helps sustain historic memory.

Conclusion

Dame Millicent Fawcett stands as a towering figure in the history of women's rights: a strategic, eloquent, and principled activist whose vision of constitutional reform helped reshape British democracy. While she rarely favored dramatic confrontation, her steady leadership, intellectual rigor, and moral clarity made her a formidable and enduring voice for equality.

Citation for this page / article:
Based on sources including Encyclopedia Britannica Journal of Liberal History