On this day, (05/11/2024), 95 years ago, suffragist Millicent Fawcett passed away.
Millicent Fawcett was born to a large, politicised family in 1847. She had five brothers and five sisters, including her sister Elizabeth Garrett Anderson.[1] Anderson was the first woman to qualify in Britain as a physician and surgeon and she was passionate about female suffrage. Here, we can see an early political influence upon Fawcett’s outlook. Anderson encouraged Fawcett’s political development, introducing her to Emily Davies, a fellow suffragist. Fawcett’s political upbringing inevitably influenced her later political career. As Fawcett wrote in her memoir, “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”.[2]
In 1867 Millicent married Henry Fawcett, a Liberal MP.[3] In April 1868 their daughter, Philippa Garrett Fawcett, was born.[4] Due to Fawcett’s role in politics and her career as a writer, the press questioned and criticised her position as a wife and mother.[5] The view at the time was that the ideal role for women was in the home, not in the public sphere. Inevitably, Fawcett’s role in the fight for women’s suffrage challenged this ideal. Aware of these criticisms, Fawcett duly emphasised her role as a wife and mother within suffragist propaganda.[6] Fawcett promoted and supported traditional marriage and roles for women.[7] At a time when the suffrage campaign was seen as a threat to gender roles, Fawcett could not alienate potential supporters by appearing too radical. Thus, Fawcett’s marriage and traditional family image promoted the idea that the suffrage campaign could further women’s rights whilst upholding traditional gender roles.
Fawcett used her husband’s connections and familiarity with Westminster to further her suffrage campaign.[8] Fawcett was rather conservative in her fight for women’s rights and she remained neutral in relation to the major political parties, being careful not to alienate either from her cause.[9] Here, Fawcett’s political strategy differed markedly from her suffragette counterparts. The suffrage movement was divided between the constitutional suffragists and the militant suffragettes. The suffragettes, led by the Pankhursts, resented suffragists’ desire to work within the constitutional framework.[10] Moreover, Henry Nevinson went further and stated that Christabel Pankhurst had a “suspicion and hatred of all men”.[11] Fawcett’s consensual approach separated her from the more confrontational suffragettes. In 1897 Fawcett founded the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS), aiming to gain the vote for women through peaceful, constitutional methods.[12] Whilst some believed Fawcett’s leadership was strong and determined, others argued that it was uninspiring and weak in comparison to that of the Pankhursts.[13] Nevertheless, Fawcett successfully led the NUWSS until the 1918 Representation of the People Act, which extended the vote to some women.[14]
In 1919, following the passage of the Representation of the People Act, Fawcett stepped down as leader of the NUWSS.[15] For the rest of her life she remained supportive of the fight for universal suffrage.[16] A year before her death, in 1928, Fawcett’s lifelong aim was achieved: women were granted the vote on equal terms with men. In her diary, she wrote that it “is almost exactly 61 years ago since I heard John Stuart Mill introduce his suffrage amendment to the Reform Bill on May 20th, 1867. So I have had extraordinary good luck in having seen the struggle from the beginning”.[17] Having campaigned for women’s suffrage her whole life, on 5 August 1929 Fawcett died at the age of 82.[18]
Fawcett’s legacy remains an inspiration to many. Following the First World War, Ray Strachey, Fawcett’s secretary, played a vital role in distinguishing the constitutional suffragists from the militant suffragettes.[19] This cemented the divide between the groups. Historiographical debates continue as to whether this divide is an accurate description of the suffrage movement. Nevertheless, Fawcett’s memory and influence lives on. Today, the Fawcett Society continue the fight for gender equality.[20]
[1] Melissa Terras and Elizabeth Crawford, ed., Millicent Garrett Fawcett: Selected Writings (London: UCL Press, 2022), 3.
[2] Janet Howarth, “Fawcett, Dame Millicent Garrett [née Millicent Garrett]”, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2007), available at https://www.oxforddnb.com/display/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-33096 (last accessed 04/08/2023).
[3] Terras and Crawford, ed., Millicent Garrett Fawcett, 4.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Sandra S. Holton and June Purvis, “Mrs Henry Fawcett (1847–1929): The Widow as a Problem in Feminist Biography”, in Votes For Women, ed. Sandra S. Holton and June Purvis (London: Routledge, 2000).
[7] Martin Pugh, The March of the Women: A Revisionist Analysis of the Campaign for Women's Suffrage, 1866–1914 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), 30–31.
[8] Ibid., 13.
[9] Ibid., 22.
[10] Ibid., 18.
[11] Angela V. John and Claire Eustance, “Shared Histories – Differing Identities: Introducing Masculinities, Male Support and Women’s Suffrage”, in The Men’s Share? Masculinities, Male Support and Women’s Suffrage in Britain, 1890–1920, ed. Angela V. John and Claire Eustance (New York: Routledge, 1997), 27.
[12] Terras and Crawford, ed., Millicent Garrett Fawcett, 5.
[13] Jo Vellacott, “Feminist Consciousness and the First World War”, History Workshop Journal 23, no. 1, (1987), 87; Pugh, March of the Women, 13–14.
[14] Terras and Crawford, ed., Millicent Garrett Fawcett, 5.
[15] Ibid.
[16] Ibid.
[17] Suzanne Keyte, “Millicent Fawcett At The Royal Albert Hall”, Fawcett Society (2015), available at https://www.fawcettsociety.org.uk/blog/millicent-fawcett-royal-albert-hall ((last accessed 04/08/2023).
[18] Terras and Crawford, ed., Millicent Garrett Fawcett, 6.
[19] Laura Mayhall, "Creating the ‘suffragette spirit’: British feminism and the historical imagination", Women's History Review 4, no. 3 (1995), 322.
[20] Jill Liddington, "Era of commemoration: Celebrating the suffrage centenary." History Workshop Journal 59, no. 1 (2005), 213.