Dame Millicent Garrett Fawcett (née Garrett; 11 June 1847 – 5 August 1929) was an English politician, writer and feminist. She campaigned for

women's suffrage Women's suffrage is the right of women to vote in elections. Beginning in the start of the 18th century, some people sought to change voting laws to allow women to vote. Liberal political parties would go on to grant women the right to vot ...

by legal change and in 1897–1919 led Britain's largest women's rights association, the

National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies The National Union of Women Suffrage Societies (NUWSS), also known as the ''suffragists'' (not to be confused with the suffragettes) was an organisation founded in 1897 of women's suffrage societies around the United Kingdom. In 1919 it was ren ...

(NUWSS), explaining, "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." She tried to broaden women's chances of higher education, as a governor of Bedford College, London (now

Royal Holloway Royal Holloway, University of London (RHUL), formally incorporated as Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, is a public research university and a constituent college of the federal University of London. It has six schools, 21 academic departm ...

) and co-founding

Newnham College, Cambridge Newnham College is a women's constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1871 by a group organising Lectures for Ladies, members of which included philosopher Henry Sidgwick and suffragist campaigner Millicen ...

in 1875. In 2018, a century after the

Representation of the People Act Representation of the People Act is a stock short title used in Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belize, Ghana, Grenada, Guyana, India, Jamaica, Mauritius, Pakistan, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, ...

, she was the first woman honoured by a statue in Parliament Square.

Biography

Early life

Fawcett was born on 11 June 1847 in

Aldeburgh Aldeburgh ( ) is a coastal town in the county of Suffolk, England. Located to the north of the River Alde. Its estimated population was 2,276 in 2019. It was home to the composer Benjamin Britten and remains the centre of the international Alde ...

, to Newson Garrett (1812–1893), a businessman from nearby

Leiston Leiston ( ) is an English town in the East Suffolk non-metropolitan district of Suffolk, near Saxmundham and Aldeburgh, about from the North Sea coast, north-east of Ipswich and north-east of London. The town had a population of 5,508 at th ...

, and his London wife Louisa (''née'' Dunnell, 1813–1903). She was the eighth of their ten children. According to the Stracheys, "The Garretts were a close and happy family in which children were encouraged to be physically active, read widely, speak their minds, and share in the political interests of their father, a convert from Conservatism to Gladstonian Liberalism, a combative man, and a keen patriot." As a child, Fawcett's elder sister

Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Elizabeth Garrett Anderson (9 June 1836 – 17 December 1917) was an English physician and suffragist. She was the first woman to qualify in Britain as a physician and surgeon. She was the co-founder of the first hospital staffed by women, ...

, who became Britain's first female doctor, introduced her to

Emily Davies Sarah Emily Davies (22 April 1830 – 13 July 1921) was an English feminist and suffragist, and a pioneering campaigner for women's rights to university access. She is remembered above all as a co-founder and an early Mistress of Girton Coll ...

, an English suffragist. In her mother's biography,

Louisa Garrett Anderson Louisa Garrett Anderson, CBE (28 July 1873 – 15 November 1943) was a medical pioneer, a member of the Women's Social and Political Union, a suffragette, and social reformer. She was the daughter of the founding medical pioneer Elizabeth Gar ...

quotes Davies as saying to her mother, to Elizabeth and to Fawcett, "It is quite clear what has to be done. I must devote myself to securing higher education, while you open the medical profession to women. After these things are done, we must see about getting the vote." She then turned to Millicent: "You are younger than we are, Millie, so you must attend to that." Aged twelve in 1858, Millicent Fawcett was sent to London with her sister Elizabeth to attend a private boarding school in Blackheath. Millicent found

Louisa Browning Louisa Browning (1807 – September 6, 1887) was a British school proprietor. Her small school had some notable pupils. Life Browning was born in 1807 in London. Her father was Robert Browning who would be the grandfather of the poet named Rober ...

who led the school to be a "born teacher" whereas her sister remembered the "stupidity" of the teachers. Her sister Louise took her to the sermons of

Frederick Denison Maurice John Frederick Denison Maurice (29 August 1805 – 1 April 1872), known as F. D. Maurice, was an English Anglican theologian, a prolific author, and one of the founders of Christian socialism. Since World War II, interest in Maurice has exp ...

, a socially aware and less traditional Anglican priest, whose opinions influenced her view of religion. In 1865, she attended a lecture by John Stuart Mill. The following year, she and a friend, Emily Davies, supported the Kensington Society by collecting signatures for a petition asking Parliament to enfranchise women householders.

Marriage and family

John Stuart Mill introduced Millicent Fawcett to many other women's rights activists, including Henry Fawcett, a

Liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and m ...

Member of Parliament who had intended to marry her sister Elizabeth before she decided to focus on her medical career. Millicent and Henry married on 23 April 1867. Henry had been blinded in a shooting accident in 1858 and Millicent acted as his secretary. Their marriage was said to be based on "perfect intellectual sympathy"; Millicent pursued a writing career while caring for Henry, and ran two households, one in Cambridge, one in London. The family had some radical beliefs in support of proportional representation, individualistic and free trade principles, and opportunities for women. Their only child was Philippa Fawcett, born in 1868, who was much encouraged by her mother in her studies. In 1890 Philippa became the first woman to obtain top score in the Cambridge

Mathematical Tripos The Mathematical Tripos is the mathematics course that is taught in the Faculty of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge. It is the oldest Tripos examined at the University. Origin In its classical nineteenth-century form, the tripos was ...

exams. In 1868 Millicent joined the London Suffrage Committee, and in 1869 spoke at the first public pro-suffrage meeting held in London. In March 1870 she spoke in Brighton, her husband's constituency. As a speaker she was said to have a clear voice. In 1870 she published her short ''Political Economy for Beginners'', which was "wildly successful", running through 10 editions in 41 years. In 1872 she and her husband published ''Essays and Lectures on Social and Political Subjects'', containing eight essays by Millicent. In 1875 she co-founded Newnham Hall and served on its council. Despite many interests and duties, Millicent, with Agnes Garrett, raised four of their cousins, who had been orphaned early in life: Amy Garrett Badley, Fydell Edmund Garrett, Elsie Garrett (later a prominent botanical artist in South Africa), and Elsie's twin, John. After Fawcett's husband died on 6 November 1884, she temporarily withdrew from public life, sold both family homes and moved with Philippa to the house of her sister, Agnes Garrett. When she resumed work in 1885, she began to concentrate on politics and was a key member of what became the Women's Local Government Society. Originally a Liberal, she joined the Liberal Unionist Party in 1886 to oppose Irish Home Rule. She, like many English Protestants, felt that allowing home rule for Catholic Ireland would hurt England's prosperity and be disastrous for the Irish. In 1891 Fawcett wrote the introduction to a new edition of

Mary Wollstonecraft Mary Wollstonecraft (, ; 27 April 1759 – 10 September 1797) was a British writer, philosopher, and advocate of women's rights. Until the late 20th century, Wollstonecraft's life, which encompassed several unconventional personal relationsh ...

's book ''

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman ''A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: with Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects'' (1792), written by British philosopher and women's rights advocate Mary Wollstonecraft (1759–1797), is one of the earliest works of feminist philosop ...

''. Lyndall Gordon calls this an "influential essay"; Fawcett reasserted the reputation of the early

feminist philosopher Feminist philosophy is an approach to philosophy from a feminist perspective and also the employment of philosophical methods to feminist topics and questions. Feminist philosophy involves both reinterpreting philosophical texts and methods in ...

and claimed her as an early figure in the struggle for the vote. Fawcett was granted an honorary doctorate of law by the University of St Andrews in 1899.

Political activities

Fawcett began her political career at the age of 22, at the first women's suffrage meeting. After the death of

Lydia Becker Lydia Ernestine Becker (24 February 1827 – 18 July 1890) was a leader in the early British suffrage movement, as well as an amateur scientist with interests in biology and astronomy. She established Manchester as a centre for the suffrage mo ...

, Fawcett became leader of the

(NUWSS), Britain's main

suffragist Suffrage, political franchise, or simply franchise, is the right to vote in public, political elections and referendums (although the term is sometimes used for any right to vote). In some languages, and occasionally in English, the right to v ...

organisation. Politically she took a moderate position, distancing herself from the militancy and direct actions of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), which she believed would harm women's chances of winning the vote by souring public opinion and alienating members of Parliament. Despite the publicity for the WSPU, the NUWSS with its slogan "Law-Abiding suffragists" retained more support. By 1905, Fawcett's NUWSS had 305 constituent societies and almost 50,000 members, compared with the WSPU's 2,000 members in 1913. Fawcett mainly fought for women's suffrage, and found home rule "a blow to the greatness and prosperity of England as well as disaster and... misery and pain and shame". She explains her disaffiliation from the more militant movement in her book ''What I remember'': The South African War gave a chance to Fawcett to share female responsibilities in British culture. She was nominated to lead a commission of women sent to South Africa, sailing there in July 1901 with other women "to investigate

Emily Hobhouse Emily Hobhouse (9 April 1860 – 8 June 1926) was a British welfare campaigner, anti-war activist, and pacifist. She is primarily remembered for bringing to the attention of the British public, and working to change, the deprived conditions in ...

's indictment of atrocious conditions in

concentration camps Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simply ...

where the families of the Boer soldiers were interned." No British women had been entrusted before with such a task in wartime. Millicent fought for the civil rights of the Uitlanders "as the cause of revival of interest in women's suffrage". Fawcett had backed countless campaigns over many years, for instance to curb child abuse by raising the age of consent, criminalise incest and cruelty to children within the family, end the practice of excluding women from courtrooms when sexual offences were considered, stamp out the "white slave trade", and prevent child marriage and the introduction of regulated prostitution in India. Fawcett campaigned to repeal the

Contagious Diseases Acts The Contagious Diseases Acts (CD Acts) were originally passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom in 1864 (27 & 28 Vict. c. 85), with alterations and additions made in 1866 (29 & 30 Vict. c. 35) and 1869 (32 & 33 Vict. c. 96). In 1862, a com ...

, as reflecting sexual

double standard A double standard is the application of different sets of principles for situations that are, in principle, the same. It is often used to describe treatment whereby one group is given more latitude than another. A double standard arises when two ...

s. They required prostitutes to be examined for

sexually transmitted diseases Sexually transmitted infections (STIs), also referred to as sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and the older term venereal diseases, are infections that are spread by sexual activity, especially vaginal intercourse, anal sex, and oral ...

and if found to have passed disease to their clients, to be imprisoned. Women could be arrested on suspicion of being a prostitute and imprisoned for refusing consent to examinations that were invasive and painful. The men who infected the women were not subject to the Acts, which were repealed through campaigning by Fawcett and others. She believed such double standards would never be erased until women were represented in the public sphere. Fawcett wrote three books, one co-authored with her husband, and many articles, some published posthumously. Her ''Political Economy for Beginners'' went into ten editions, sparked two novels, and appeared in many languages. One of her first articles on women's education appeared in ''

Macmillan's Magazine ''Macmillan's Magazine'' was a monthly British magazine from 1859 to 1907 published by Alexander Macmillan. The magazine was a literary periodical that published fiction and non-fiction works from primarily British authors. Thomas Hughes had co ...

'' in 1875, the year when her interest in women's education led her to become a founder of Newnham College for Women in Cambridge. There she served on the college council and backed a controversial bid for all women to receive Cambridge degrees. Millicent regularly spoke at girls' schools, women's colleges and adult education centres. In 1904, she resigned from the Unionists over

free trade Free trade is a trade policy that does not restrict imports or exports. It can also be understood as the free market idea applied to international trade. In government, free trade is predominantly advocated by political parties that hold econ ...

, when

Joseph Chamberlain Joseph Chamberlain (8 July 1836 – 2 July 1914) was a British statesman who was first a radical Liberal, then a Liberal Unionist after opposing home rule for Ireland, and eventually served as a leading imperialist in coalition with the C ...

gained control in his campaign for

tariff reform The Tariff Reform League (TRL) was a protectionist British pressure group formed in 1903 to protest against what they considered to be unfair foreign imports and to advocate Imperial Preference to protect British industry from foreign competitio ...

. When the First World War broke out in 1914, the WSPU ceased all activities to focus on the war effort. Fawcett's NUWSS replaced her political activity with support for hospital services in training camps, Scotland, Russia and Serbia, largely because the organisation was markedly less militant than the WSPU: it contained many more pacifists and support for the war within it was weaker. The WSPU was called jingoistic for its leaders' strong support for the war. While Fawcett was no pacifist, she risked dividing the organisation if she ordered a halt to the campaign and diverted NUWSS funds to the government as the WSPU had. The NUWSS continued to campaign for the vote during the war and used the situation to its advantage by pointing out the contribution women had made to the war effort. She held her post until 1919, a year after the first women had received the vote under the Representation of the People Act 1918. After that, she left the suffrage campaign and devoted time to writing books, including a biography of

Josephine Butler Josephine Elizabeth Butler (' Grey; 13 April 1828 – 30 December 1906) was an English feminist and social reformer in the Victorian era. She campaigned for women's suffrage, the right of women to better education, the end of coverture ...

Later years

In 1919 Fawcett was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Birmingham. In the 1925 New Year Honours she was appointed Dame Grand Cross of the

Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(GBE). Millicent Fawcett died in 1929 at her London home in Gower Street, Bloomsbury. She was cremated at the

Golders Green Crematorium Golders Green Crematorium and Mausoleum was the first crematorium to be opened in London, and one of the oldest crematoria in Britain. The land for the crematorium was purchased in 1900, costing £6,000 (the equivalent of £135,987 in 2021), ...

although the final resting place of her ashes is unknown. In 1932, a memorial to Fawcett, alongside that of her husband, was unveiled in

Westminster Abbey Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an historic, mainly Gothic church in the City of Westminster, London, England, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is one of the Unite ...

with an inscription: "A wise constant and courageous Englishwoman. She won citizenship for women."

Legacy

''Millicent Fawcett Hall'' was constructed in 1929 in

Westminster Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster. The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, B ...

as a place for women's debates and discussions; presently owned by

Westminster School (God Gives the Increase) , established = Earliest records date from the 14th century, refounded in 1560 , type = Public school Independent day and boarding school , religion = Church of England , head_label = Hea ...

, the hall is used by the drama department as a 150-seat studio theatre.

Saint Felix School Saint Felix School is a 2–18 mixed, independent, day and boarding school in Reydon, Southwold, Suffolk, England. The school was founded in 1897 as a school for girls but is now co-educational. History The school was founded in 1897 as a gir ...

, near Fawcett's birthplace of Aldeburgh, has named one of its boarding houses after her. A blue plaque for Fawcett was erected in 1954 by London County Council at her home of 45 years in Bloomsbury. The archives of Millicent Fawcett are held at

The Women's Library The Women's Library is England's main library and museum resource on women and the women's movement, concentrating on Britain in the 19th and 20th centuries. It has an institutional history as a coherent collection dating back to the mid-1920s, ...

London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) is a public university, public research university located in London, England and a constituent college of the federal University of London. Founded in 1895 by Fabian Society members Sidn ...

, which in 2018 renamed one of its campus buildings ''Fawcett House'', after her role in the British suffrage movement and connections to the area. In February 2018, Fawcett was announced as winner of a

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...

poll for the most influential woman of the past 100 years. The Millicent Fawcett Mile is an annual one-mile running race for women, inaugurated in 2018 at the Müller Anniversary Games in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

Commemoration

In 2018, 100 years after the passing of the

, for which Fawcett had successfully campaigned and which granted limited franchise, she became the first woman commemorated with a statue in Parliament Square, by the sculptor

Gillian Wearing Gillian Wearing CBE, RA (born 10 December 1963) is an English conceptual artist, one of the Young British Artists, and winner of the 1997 Turner Prize. In 2007 Wearing was elected as lifetime member of the Royal Academy of Arts in London. He ...

. This followed a campaign led by Caroline Criado Perez, in which over 84,000 online signatures were gathered. Fawcett's statue holds a banner quoting from a speech she gave in 1920, after

Emily Davison Emily Wilding Davison (11 October 1872 – 8 June 1913) was an English suffragette who fought for votes for women in Britain in the early twentieth century. A member of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) and a militant figh ...

's death during the 1913 Epsom Derby: "Courage calls to courage everywhere". At its unveiling

Theresa May Theresa Mary May, Lady May (; née Brasier; born 1 October 1956) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2016 to 2019. She previously served in David Cameron's cabi ...

said, "I would not be standing here today as Prime Minister, no female MPs would have taken their seats in Parliament, none of us would have the rights we now enjoy, were it not for one truly great woman: Dame Millicent Garret 'sic''Fawcett."

Notable works

*1870: ''Political Economy for Beginners'
Full text online
*1872: ''Essays and Lectures on Social and Political Subjects'' (with Henry Fawcett
Full text online
*1872: '' Electoral Disabilities of Women: a lecture *1874: ''Tales in Political Economy'
Full text online
*1875: ''Janet Doncaster'', a novel, set in her birthplace of Aldeburgh, Suffolk Full text online *1889: ''Some Eminent Women of our Times: short biographical sketches'
Full text online
*1895: ''Life of Her Majesty, Queen Victoria'
Full text online
*1901: ''Life of the Right Hon. Sir William Molesworth'
Full text online
*1905: ''Five Famous French Women'
Full text online
*1912: ''Women's Suffrage : a Short History of a Great Movement''
Full text online
*1920: ''The Women's Victory and After: Personal reminiscences, 1911–1918'
Full text online
*1924: ''What I Remember (Pioneers of the Woman's Movement)'' Full text online *1926: Easter in Palestine, 1921-192
Text online
*1927: ''Josephine Butler: her work and principles and their meaning for the twentieth century'' (written with Ethel M. Turner)

Gallery

External links

*
The Women's Library (formerly the Fawcett Library)
* * * * * ***''Please note that a wikilink to the article on ommunismin B9is not available''***.This article on Communism was written by Fawcett for the 9th (Scholars) Edition of ''Encyclopædia Britannica'', but truncated and no longer attributed to her in the 11th edition's article * *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fawcett, Millicent 1847 births 1929 deaths British feminists English suffragists People from Aldeburgh International Alliance of Women people Dames Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire Women of the Victorian era Newnham College, Cambridge Academics of Birkbeck, University of London English non-fiction writers 20th-century English novelists Eagle House suffragettes Golders Green Crematorium