The Week UK: Who was Millicent Fawcett?

The Week UK

UK News
Who was Millicent Fawcett?
Apr 24, 2018
The ‘most influential woman’ of the past century is being honoured with a statue in Parliament Square

          whatsapp
                
Getty Images

Celebrated suffragist Millicent Fawcett has become the first woman to be honoured with a bronze statue in London’s Parliament Square.
See related
The real suffragettes: Emmeline Pankhurst, Emily Davison and Edith New
Emmeline Pankhurst: the mother of British suffrage
Emily Davison: The true story of the Epsom derby martyr

Theresa May joined London Mayor Sadiq Khan this morning at the official unveiling of the monument, to mark the centenary of women winning the right to vote. Khan described the tribute as “long overdue”.

Fawcett’s statue was commissioned following a two-year campaign by feminist writer and activist Caroline Criado Perez, who also led last year’s successful effort to have Jane Austen commemorated on the new £10 note.

The unveiling comes two months after Fawcett was named he most influential woman of the past 100 years by BBC Radio 4 listeners.

So just who is she and what did she do?
Early life

Born in Suffolk in 1847, Fawcett was the eighth of ten children born into an affluent family. In 1858, she was sent a private boarding school in Blackheath, southeast London. Her older sister, Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, was also in the capital studying medicine, and would later become the first woman in Britain to qualify as a doctor.

Elizabeth introduced Millicent, or Millie, to English suffragist Emily Davies, who is said to have told them: “It is quite clear what has to be done. I must devote myself to securing higher education, while you [Elizabeth] open the medical profession to women. After these things are done, we must see about getting the vote. You are younger than we are, Millie, so you must attend to that.”

The young Fawcett was also influenced by the radical MP John Stuart Mill, an early (and rare male) advocate of universal women’s suffrage.
Impact on women’s rights

In 1897, Fawcett and a number of other now-famed figures of the women’s rights movement merged various local suffrage societies to create the National Union for Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS). The organisation insisted on using only non-violent tactics such as lobbying and petitions to persuade the government to grant women voting rights.

Among the other founding members of the NUWSS as Emmeline Pankhurst, widely regarded as another of the suffrage movement’s most influential - and controversial - figures.

Differences of opinion between Fawcett and the more militant Pankhurst came to a head in 1903, when Pankhurst left the NUWSS and formed the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU), which according to its own slogan was dedicated to “deeds, not words”, including hunger strikes, assault and arson.

Despite their opposing approaches, the two movements worked throughout the First World War to further the cause. In recognition of women’s efforts in the War, the government passed the Representation of the People Act in 1918.

This extended the right to vote to all men aged over 21 years old and to all women over 30 who held £5 of property - or had husbands who did - expanding the electorate by 5.6 million men and 8.4 million women.

In 1925, Fawcett was awarded a Damehood by King George V for her work, which included co-founding one of Britain’s first women-only colleges, Newnham at Cambridge University.

She continued to fight for women’s rights until her death at the age of 82 in 1929 - one year after universal suffrage was granted to women in the UK.
Advertisement

Read more: UK News
Suffrage
History
People
Advertisement
You are here:

    HomeWho was Millicent Fawcett?

Related Articles

    Disposable coffee cups
    Reaction
    Boston Tea Party becomes first chain to ban disposable cups
    Volunteers pack food at a food bank
    One-Minute Read
    Food bank use in UK at record high
    Preview
    When are the UK’s bank holidays for 2018?
    William, Kate, royal baby
    One-Minute Read
    Windsor family celebrates arrival of royal baby - in pics
    Millicent Fawcett
    One-Minute Read
    Who was Millicent Fawcett?
    Fatberg
    One-Minute Read
    What is inside London’s fatbergs?
    Dartmoor ponies
    One-Minute Read
    Horses being dumped like rubbish and left to die, says RSPCA
    Demonstrators hold placards during a protest in support of the Windrush generation in Windrush Square, Brixton
    One-Minute Read
    Windrush generation to be granted citizenship papers

Our latest wine offer
+ FREE UK delivery
Visit
Portfolio

The experts' guide to good living

    Take flight: David Gandy and The Aerodrome Collaboration
    Ultimate Luxury: Mercedes-Maybach unveils SUV concept
    Best box sets 2018

Read more
Popular

    Inside Kensington Palace: William and Kate to raise third royal baby in London home
    Design & Architecture
    Driver jailed after ‘repeatedly’ swearing at speed cameras
    Motoring
    London Marathon death: how safe is long-distance running?
    Science & Health
    Man Utd transfer news: Anthony Martial set for summer exit
    Sport
    Premier League transfer news: Mo Salah, Paul Pogba, Naby Keita, Jan Oblak
    Sport

Trending Topics

    Islamic State
    Donald Trump
    Brexit
    Jeremy Corbyn
    Gold price
    Jeremy Clarkson
    Oil price

Daily Briefing

Ten things you need to know today
In partnership with Rolex

    Toronto van attack: police quiz suspect
    Statue of suffragist unveiled in London
    Poor sales force shop closures nationally

Read more
Our Latest Offers, Competitions and Events

    Our latest offers and competitions
    Latest offers and events
    Outstanding wines that won't break the bank

FIND OUT MORE
Back to top

    FacebookTwitter

    NewsBusinessTechnologyCars MoneyPortfolioPeopleSportSubscriptionsOffers

    The Week US
    Email newsletter
    Privacy
    RSS
    Sitemap
    Contact us
    Authors
    About us

© Copyright The Week Ltd which is a subsidiary of Dennis Publishing Limited.
The Week incorporates The First Post. The Week™ and The First Post™ are trademarks of Felix Dennis.

    Felix DennisJobsMedia InformationSubscription EnquiresBooksAppsYour Online Choices

Sign up for our daily newsletter
Newsletter