Fawcett, Millicent Garrett (1847-1929), was a leader of the British woman suffrage movement—that is, the political and social movement to secure voting rights for women. Fawcett also worked for women’s rights in education and the workplace, and campaigned against child labor and child marriage, among other causes. Fawcett is considered a suffragist because she sought the vote solely through legal, peaceful means. Other reformers, called suffragettes, sometimes used such aggressive methods as the destruction of public property and the disruption of political party meetings to achieve their goal.
Millicent Garrett was born on June 11, 1847, in Aldeburgh, Suffolk, England. She grew up in a middle-class family that encouraged her education and her interest in politics. As a young woman, Garrett was exposed to the woman suffrage movement by her older sisters Louisa and Elizabeth. In 1867, Garrett joined the executive committee of the newly established London National Society for Woman Suffrage. The same year, she married Henry Fawcett, a professor of political economy and member of Parliament who also supported woman suffrage. Henry was blind, and Millicent acted as his guide and assisted him with his work.
In 1869, Millicent spoke at the first public meeting in London, England, for the cause of woman suffrage. She then continued to develop an active speaking and writing career. Fawcett spoke on various academic and political subjects in addition to women’s rights. She wrote many articles and books, including biographies, novels, works on economics, and two books on woman suffrage—Women’s Suffrage: A Short History of a Great Movement (1912) and The Women’s Victory—And After (1920). She also wrote the autobiography What I Remember (1924).
In the 1870’s, Fawcett helped found Newnham Hall, a residence for women attending lectures at Cambridge University . The residence later became Newnham College, a women’s college at Cambridge. Fawcett also became active in the trade union movement in the late 1800’s. She held leadership positions in such labor organizations as the National Union of Working Women and the Women’s Protective and Provident League (later the Women’s Trade Union League).
In 1897, Fawcett helped form the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS) from many smaller organizations. She served as the group’s president from 1907 to 1919. During that period, the NUWSS became the country’s largest suffrage society, with about 50,000 members. In 1913, Fawcett organized about 70,000 people from around the country in a march to Hyde Park, London, to support woman suffrage. In 1904, Fawcett became a vice president of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance (IWSA).
Fawcett remained active in the women’s rights movement into her old age. In 1925, she was made a Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire, an honor corresponding to knighthood. Fawcett died in London on Aug. 5, 1929, the year after British women won the right to vote on equal terms with men. In 2018, she became the first woman honored with a statue in London’s Parliament Square.
