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{{Short description|English politician, writer, and activist (1847–1929)}}
{{Use British English|date=October 2015}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2020}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = Dame Millicent Fawcett
| honorific_suffix   = {{postnominals|country=GBR|size=100%|GBEf}}
| image              = Millicent Fawcett.jpg
| alt                = 
| caption            = Fawcett, {{circa|1873}}
| birth_name         = Millicent Garrett
| birth_date         = {{Birth date|df=yes|1847|6|11}}
| birth_place        = [[Aldeburgh]], Suffolk, England
| death_date         = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1929|8|5|1847|6|11}}
| death_place        = [[Bloomsbury]], London, England
| monuments          = [[Statue of Millicent Fawcett]]
| occupation         = Suffragist, union leader
| spouse             = {{marriage|[[Henry Fawcett]]|23 April 1867|6 November 1884|end=d}}
| children           = [[Philippa Fawcett]]
| parents            = [[Newson Garrett]]<br />Louisa Dunnell
| relatives          = [[Elizabeth Garrett Anderson]], [[Agnes Garrett]] (sisters)<br />[[Louisa Garrett Anderson]] (niece)
}}
'''Dame Millicent Garrett Fawcett''' {{postnominals|country=GBR|GBEf}} ({{nee|'''Garrett'''}}; 11 June 1847 – 5 August 1929) was an English political activist and writer. She campaigned for [[Women's suffrage in the United Kingdom|women's suffrage]] by [[Law reform|legal change]] and in 1897–1919 led Britain's largest women's rights association, the [[National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies]] (NUWSS),<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/millicent-fawcett-suffragist-anniversary-google-doodle-women-voting-rights-facts-a8393061.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220514/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/millicent-fawcett-suffragist-anniversary-google-doodle-women-voting-rights-facts-a8393061.html |archive-date=14 May 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |work=The Independent |author=Maya Oppenheim |title=Millicent Fawcett: Who was the tireless suffragist and how did she change women's voting rights forever? |date=11 June 2018}}</ref> 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."<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/politics/hidden-credits-1-millicent-fawcett-ethel-smyth/ |title=How Millicent Fawcett and Ethel Smyth helped women win the vote |last=Lyons |first=Izzy |date=5 February 2018 |work=The Telegraph |access-date=11 November 2019 |language=en-GB |issn=0307-1235}}</ref> She tried to broaden women's chances of higher education, as a governor of [[Bedford College, London]] (now [[Royal Holloway]]) and co-founding [[Newnham College, Cambridge]] in 1871.<ref name="odnb">{{Cite ODNB |id=33096 |last=Howarth |first=Janet |title=Fawcett, Dame Millicent Garrett [''née'' Millicent Garrett] (1847–1929) |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/33096 |access-date=4 January 2017 |freearticle=y}}</ref> In 2018, a century after the [[Representation of the People Act 1918|Representation of the People Act]], she was the first woman honoured by a [[Statue of Millicent Fawcett|statue in Parliament Square]].<ref name="statue">{{Cite news |url=http://www.politics.co.uk/comment-analysis/2018/04/24/millicent-fawcett-courage-calls-to-courage-everywhere |title=Millicent Fawcett: Courage calls to courage everywhere |work=politics.co.uk |access-date=11 June 2018 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="BBC 20 September 2017">{{Cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-41330508 |title=Millicent Fawcett statue gets Parliament Square go ahead |date=20 September 2017 |website=[[BBC News Online]] |access-date=20 September 2017}}</ref><ref name="smithsonian">{{Cite news |last1=Katz |first1=Brigit |title=London's Parliament Square Will Get Its First Statue |url=http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/londons-parliament-square-will-get-its-first-statue-woman-180962760/ |access-date=4 April 2017 |work=Smithsonian Magazine |date=4 April 2017}}</ref>

==Biography==
[[File:My father and mother in their old age.jpg|thumb|Fawcett's parents, Newson and Louisa Garrett, in their old age|360x360px]]

===Early life===
Fawcett was born on 11 June 1847 in [[Aldeburgh]],<ref name="odnb"/> to [[Newson Garrett]] (1812–1893), a businessman from nearby [[Leiston]], and his London wife Louisa (''née'' Dunnell, 1813–1903).<ref name="Manton">{{Cite book |last1=Manton |first1=Jo |title=Elizabeth Garrett Anderson: England's First Woman Physician |date=1965 |publisher=Methuen |location=London |page=20}}</ref><ref name=Ogilvie>{{Cite book |last=Ogilvie |first=Marilyn Bailey |title=Women in science: antiquity through the nineteenth century: a biographical dictionary with annotated bibliography |year=1986 |publisher=MIT Press |location=Cambridge, Mass. |isbn=978-0-262-15031-6 |edition=3 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/womeninscience00mari}}</ref> She was the eighth of their ten children.<ref name="odnb"/>

According to [[Ray Strachey]], "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."<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Cause: A Short History of the Women's Movement in Great Britain |last=Strachey |first=Ray |publisher=CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform |year=2016 |isbn=978-1539098164}}</ref>

As a child, Fawcett's elder sister [[Elizabeth Garrett Anderson]], who became Britain's first female doctor, introduced her to [[Emily Davies]], an English suffragist. In her mother's biography, [[Louisa Garrett Anderson]] 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."<ref>{{Cite book |title=Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, 1836–1917 |last=Garrett Anderson |first=Louisa |publisher=Faber and Faber |year=1939}}</ref>

Aged twelve in 1858, Millicent Garrett was sent to London with her sister Elizabeth to attend a private boarding school in Blackheath. Millicent found [[Louisa Browning]] who led the school to be a "born teacher" whereas her sister remembered the "stupidity" of the teachers.<ref>{{Cite ODNB |title=The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |date=2004-09-23 |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/52391 |pages=ref:odnb/52391 |editor-last=Matthew |editor-first=H. C. G. |place=Oxford |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/52391 |access-date=2022-12-20 |editor2-last=Harrison |editor2-first=B.}}</ref> Her sister Louise took her to the sermons of [[Frederick Denison Maurice]], 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 (women's discussion group)|Kensington Society]] by collecting signatures for a petition asking Parliament to enfranchise women householders.<ref name="odnb"/>

===Marriage, family and  the suffrage movement===
[[File:Millicent Garrett Fawcett with Henry Fawcett, c.&nbsp;1880. (22159137393).jpg|left|thumb|404x404px|Millicent and Henry Fawcett]][[File:Cambridge. Newnham College for Women (3611554106).jpg|thumb|left|Millicent Fawcett co-founded [[Newnham College, Cambridge|Newnham College for Women]] in 1871]]
John Stuart Mill introduced Millicent Garrett to many other women's rights activists, including [[Henry Fawcett]], a [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal]] 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.<ref name="odnb"/> Henry had been blinded in a shooting accident in 1858 and Millicent acted as his secretary.<ref name="abt">{{Cite web |url=http://womenshistory.about.com/od/suffragists/p/fawcett.htm |title=Millicent Garrett Fawcett |publisher=[[About.com]] |access-date=23 April 2009}}</ref> 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 held strong beliefs in favour of [[proportional representation]], individualistic and [[free trade]] principles, and advancement for women.<ref name="odnb"/> Their only child, [[Philippa Fawcett|Philippa]], born in 1868, 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]] exams.<ref>{{citation |author=Caroline Series |title=And what became of the women? |work=Mathematical Spectrum |volume=30 (1997/1998) |date= |pages=49–52}}</ref>

In 1868 Fawcett joined the London Suffrage Committee, and in 1869 spoke at the first public pro-suffrage meeting held in London.<ref name="odnb"/> In March 1870 she spoke in Brighton, her husband's constituency. As a speaker she was said to have a clear voice.<ref name="odnb"/> In 1870 she published her short ''Political Economy for Beginners'', which was "wildly successful",<ref name="faw"/> running to 10 editions in 41 years.<ref name="odnb"/><ref name="faw">{{Cite web |url=http://www.hetwebsite.net/het/profiles/millicentfawcett.htm |title=Millicent Garrett Fawcett, 1847–1929 |publisher=The History of Economic Thought |access-date=24 April 2018}}</ref><ref>See {{Cite book |last=Fawcett |first=Millicent Garrett |year=1911 |title=Political Economy for Beginners |edition=10 |publisher= Macmillan and Co. |publication-date=1911 |location=London, UK |url=https://archive.org/details/fawcetteconomics00fawcrich |access-date=22 June 2014}} via Archive.org.</ref> In 1871 she contributed an article to [[Macmillan's Magazine]] entitled "A short explanation of Mr. Hare's scheme of representation," concerning [[single transferable voting]].<ref>{{citation |title=The Preferential Ballot |publisher=Univ. of Oklahoma |date=1914 |page=49 |url=https://archive.org/details/preferentialball00univ_0/page/4/mode/2up |via=archive.org}}</ref> In 1872 Fawcett and her husband published ''Essays and Lectures on Social and Political Subjects'', containing eight of her essays.<ref name="odnb"/><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Fawcett |first1=Henry |last2=Fawcett |first2=Millicent Garrett |year=1872 |title=Essays and Lectures on Social and Political Subjects |publisher=Macmillan and Co. |publication-date=1872 |location=London, UK |url=https://archive.org/details/essayslectureson00fawciala |access-date=22 June 2014 |via=Archive.org}}</ref> Fawcett and [[Anne Clough]]'s interest in [[North of England Council for Promoting the Higher Education of Women|higher education for women]] saw the co-founding of [[Newnham College, Cambridge|Newnham Hall]] in 1871   where Millicent served on the Council of the Newnham Hall (later Newnham College) Company from 1881 to 1909. During this time, she and fellow  suffragists,  including [[Ethel Snowden]], Miss Alison and [[Arnold Lupton|Mrs Arnold Lupton]], delivered speeches to crowds but were, on occasion, objected to by some of their audience.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hughes-Johnson |first1=Alexandra Victoria Elizabeth |title=Rose Lamartine-Yates and the Wimbledon WSPU: Reconfiguring Suffragette History from the Local to the National. |date=2017 |publisher=Royal Holloway, University of London |url=https://pure.royalholloway.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/30732062/Final_Thesis_Pure_.pdf |access-date=10 April 2020}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Liu8A8KjDR0C&pg=PA11 |title=Distinguished Women Economists |last1=Cicarelli |first1=James |author2=Julianne Cicarelli |publisher=[[Greenwood Publishing Group|Greenwood]] |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-313-30331-9 |page=63}}</ref>

Despite many interests and duties, Fawcett and her sister [[Agnes Garrett|Agnes]] raised four of their cousins, who had been orphaned early in life: [[Amy Garrett Badley]], [[Fydell Edmund Garrett]], [[Elsie Garrett Rice|Elsie Garrett]] (who became a prominent botanical artist in South Africa), and Elsie's twin, John.<ref>{{Cite journal |url=http://journals.co.za/content/veld/63/1/AJA00423203_809 |title=A distinguished but little known artist: Elsie Garrett-Rice |first=D. |last=Heesom |date=1 March 1977 |journal=Veld & Flora |volume=63 |issue=1}}</ref> In 1874 Fawcett had a bad fall from a horse that prevented her from attending a meeting of the [[National Society for Women's Suffrage]] in [[Leeds]].<ref>{{cite book |title=Events of the Quarter - Women's Suffrage |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/titles/englishwomans-review|page=53 |access-date=3 May 2023 |publisher=Englishwoman's Review |date=1874}}</ref>

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 .<ref name="odnb"/>  [[Charles Frederic Moberly Bell|Enid Moberly Bell's]]  biography of social reformer [[Octavia Hill]] records that Hill had "set her heart on securing" the Fawcett's home, The Lawn, in [[Lambeth]]  "as a park for Lambeth".  At this time, Fawcett, an instigator for the park's creation, gave  a speech  at [[Lambeth Palace]], which had been lent by the Archbishop for the meeting, and The Lawn, renamed [[Vauxhall Park]], was formally opened in July, 1890, by the [[Edward VII|Prince of Wales]]; [[Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll|Princess Louise]], who had followed Octavia's work with interest and sympathy for many years was present.<ref>{{cite book |last1=MOBERLY BELL |first1=Enid |url=https://www.historyofsocialwork.org/1864_ENG_Octavia_Hill/1942,%20Octavia%20Hill%20OCR%20C.pdf|title=OCTAVIA HILL - A Biography |date=1942 |publisher=Constable and Company |pages=226 |access-date=3 April 2023}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.vauxhallpark.org.uk/|website= www.vauxhallpark.org.uk|title=Friends of Vauxhall Park: Facilities|access-date=5 July 2020}}</ref>

When Fawcett resumed work in 1885, she concentrated on politics and was a key member of what became the [[Women's Local Government Society]].<ref name="DoughanGordon2014">{{Cite book |last1=Doughan |first1=David |last2=Gordon |first2=Professor Peter |last3=Gordon |first3=Peter |title=Dictionary of British Women's Organisations, 1825–1960 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dI23AwAAQBAJ&pg=PT223 |date=3 June 2014 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-1-136-89777-1 |pages=223–224}}</ref> 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.<ref name=":0"/> In 1885, Fawcett also voiced her support for [[W. T. Stead]] over his term of [[Eliza Armstrong case|imprisonment]]. What made Stead exemplary, according to Fawcett, was his commitment to ‘protect and shelter the [[domestic abuse|weak]] which echoed Dr Clifford's [[eulogy]]  at Stead's [[Westminster Chapel]] memorial service: 'No movement that gave promise of help to woman called in vain for his chivalry and devotion.' Fawcett was a founder member of the [[National Vigilance Association]], a moral purity campaign brought to prominence by Stead’s 1885 exposure of the white slave trade in London. 'Stead Hostels' were named in his honour to house and protect young working women and girls.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Little |first1=T. |title=Journal of Liberal History - Millicent Garrett Fawcett, 1847-1929 |date=2020 |publisher=Liberal Democratic History Group |url=https://liberalhistory.org.uk/history/millicent-garrett-fawcett-1847-1929/#:~:text=She%20was%20a%20founder%20member%20of%20the%20National%20Vigilance%20Association,lobbying%20for%20the%20women's%20franchise. |access-date=3 April 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Eckley |first1=G. |title=Maiden Tribute - A Life of W.T. Stead |page=385 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pRn307aQfW8C&dq=Stead+Hostel++Leeds+working+women&pg=PA385 |publisher=Exlibris|date=2007}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Delap |first1=L. |title=No one pretends he was faultless': W. T. Stead and the Women's Movement |url=https://19.bbk.ac.uk/article/id/1750/ |publisher=Open Library of Humanities |access-date=3 April 2024 |date=2013 }}</ref>

In 1891 Fawcett wrote the introduction to a new edition of [[Mary Wollstonecraft]]'s book ''[[A Vindication of the Rights of Woman]]''. [[Lyndall Gordon]] calls this an "influential essay"; she reasserted the reputation of the early [[feminist philosophy|feminist philosopher]] and claimed her as an early figure in the struggle for the vote.<ref>{{cite book |first=Lyndall |last=Gordon |title=Vindication: A Life of Mary Wollstonecraft |location= Great Britain |publisher= Virago |date= 2005 |page= 521 |isbn=1-84408-141-9}}</ref>

Fawcett was granted an honorary [[Legum Doctor|doctorate of law]] by [[the University of St Andrews]] in 1899.<ref name="odnb"/>

==Political activities==
[[File:Suffrage Alliance Congress, London 1909.jpg|thumb|Suffrage Alliance Congress with Fawcett presiding, London 1909. Top row from left: [[Thora Daugaard]] (Denmark), [[:no:Louise Qvam|Louise Qvam]] (Norway), [[Aletta Jacobs]] (Netherlands), [[Annie Furuhjelm]] (Finland), [[Zinaida Ivanova|Zinaida Mirowitch (Zinaida Ivanova)]] (Russia), [[Käthe Schirmacher]] (Germany), Klara Honneger (Switzerland), unidentified. Bottom left: Unidentified, [[Anna Bugge]] (Sweden), [[Anna Howard Shaw]] (USA), Millicent Fawcett (Presiding, England), [[Carrie Chapman Catt]] (USA), [[Fredrikke Marie Qvam|F. M. Qvam]] (Norway), [[Anita Augspurg]] (Germany).|324x324px]][[File:Millicent Garrett Fawcett and Lady Frances Balfour at Women's Coronation Procession.jpg|thumb|1911 - Fawcett as President of the NUWSS (fifth from left) with  [[Lady Frances Balfour]] (to her left) - a member of the executive committee - photographed  at the [[Women's Coronation Procession]]]]Fawcett mainly fought for women's suffrage. She stated that Irish home rule would be "a blow to the greatness and prosperity of England as well as disaster and... misery and pain and shame".<ref name=":0" /> At a young age she published essays on the need for proportional representation, "electoral disabilities of women", "education of women" and addressing the national debt.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://ia903101.us.archive.org/33/items/essayslectureson00fawciala/essayslectureson00fawciala_bw.pdf |title=Essays and Lectures on Fawcett |website=ia903101.us.archive.org}}</ref>

Fawcett began her political career at the age of 22, at the first women's suffrage meeting.  By 1871, she  was  a member of  the Executive Committee of the London Branch of the  [[National Society for Women's Suffrage]] which had been established on July 5, 1867 and was   "therefore in the fifth year of its work" in 1871.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Horowitz Murray |first1=Janet |title=The Englishwoman's Review of Social and Industrial Questions - 1871 |date=1985 |publisher=Garland Company Pty. Ltd. london New York |pages=270, 271, 272 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AStgenGnO7wC&dq=fawcett+sunday+Lecture+society+the+education+of+women&pg=PP10 |access-date=3 April 2025 |quote=Events of the Quarter (1871) -...Miss Ramsey, hon. secretary to the Bristol  Branch of the National Society of Women's Suffrage......The  committee  in Leeds consists of the following:...Miss Ford...Mr Joseph Lupton....The London [Branch of the] Society was established on July 5th 1867 and is therefore in the fifth year of its work.  The Executive Committee consists of the following members:- ...Mrs H. Fawcett [i.e., Millicent Fawcett]...}}</ref> After the death of [[Lydia Becker]], Fawcett became leader of the [[National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies]] (NUWSS), Britain's main [[suffragist]] organisation. Politically she took a moderate position, distancing herself from the militancy and [[direct action]]s of the [[Women's Social and Political Union|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.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Van Wingerden |first=Sophia A. |title=The women's suffrage movement in Britain, 1866–1928 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0oLxK_NHI6kC&pg=PA100 |year=1999 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |isbn=978-0-312-21853-9 |page=100}}</ref> Despite the publicity for the WSPU, the NUWSS with its slogan "Law-Abiding suffragists" retained more support.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Velllacott |first=Jo |title=Feminist Consciousness and the First World War |journal=History Workshop |year=1987 |volume=23 |issue=23 |pages=81–101 |jstor=4288749|doi=10.1093/hwj/23.1.81}}</ref> By 1897, Fawcett was president of the newly formed NUWSS and [[Lady Frances Balfour]] a member of the executive committee.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Terras |first1=M. |title=Millicent Garrett Fawcett: Selected writings |date=2022 |publisher=UCL Press |page=251 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=50pvEAAAQBAJ&dq=frances+Balfour+millicent++fawcett+NUWSS&pg=PA251 |access-date=20 April 2024}}</ref>  By 1905, Fawcett's NUWSS had 305 constituent societies and almost 50,000 members, compared with the WSPU's 2,000 members in 1913.<ref>{{Cite web |last=National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies |title=NUWSS |url=http://www.bl.uk/learning/histcitizen/21cc/struggle/suffrage/sources/source8/nuwss.html |publisher=National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies}}</ref>

The NUWSS organized its first large, open-air procession which came to be known as the [[Mud March (suffragists)|Mud March]] on 9 February 1907. They then organised a great march in 1908, when the students of Newnham and [[Girton College|Girton College's]] made and carried a banner, used again in subsequent processions and now held at Newnham. In the 1908 march, women moved in eight blocks according to their professions. There were patronising and dismissive male comments about the march and Millicent herself, but she  and the women insisted on their professional standing.<ref>{{cite web |title=Millicent Garrett Fawcett and the Campaign for Women's Suffrage |url=http://trumpingtonlocalhistorygroup.org/personalities/personalities_millicentfawcett_campaign/ |publisher=Trumpington Local History Group |access-date=3 April 2023 |date=2024 |quote=...Mud March...The NUWSS organised a great march in 1908, when the students of Newnham and Girton made and carried a banner, used again in subsequent processions and now held at Newnham. In the 1908 march, women moved in eight blocks according to their professions. There were patronising and dismissive male comments about the march and Millicent herself, but the women insisted on their professional standing.}}</ref>

She explains her disaffiliation from the more militant movement in her book ''What I Remember'':
{{blockquote|I could not support a revolutionary movement, especially as it was ruled autocratically, at first, by a small group of four persons, and latterly by one person only.... In 1908, this despotism decreed that the policy of suffering violence, but using none, was to be abandoned. After that, I had no doubt whatever that what was right for me and the NUWSS was to keep strictly to our principle of supporting our movement only by argument, based on common sense and experience and not by personal violence or lawbreaking of any kind.<ref>{{Cite book |title=What I Remember |last=Garrett Fawcett |first=Millicent |publisher=Putnam |year=1924 |url=https://archive.org/stream/whatiremember00mill#page/184 |page=185}}</ref>}}

The [[Second Boer War|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,<ref name="odnb"/> sailing there in July 1901 with other women "to investigate [[Emily Hobhouse]]'s indictment of atrocious conditions in [[Second Boer War concentration camps|concentration camps]] where the families of the Boer soldiers were interned."<ref name="odnb"/> 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".<ref name="odnb"/>

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.<ref name="odnb"/> Fawcett campaigned to repeal the [[Contagious Diseases Acts]], as reflecting sexual [[double standard]]s. They required prostitutes to be examined for [[sexually transmitted diseases]] 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.<ref name="odnb"/>[[File:Blathwayt, Col Linley · Suffragettes Millicent Fawcett, Mary Blathwayt and Dr. Mary Morris.jpg|thumb|At front: [[Mary Morris (doctor)|Mary Morris]], [[Mary Blathwayt]] and Fawcett at [[Eagle House (suffragette's rest)|Eagle House]], Bath, 1910. [[Annie Kenney|Annie]] and [[Kitty Kenney]] and [[Adela Pankhurst]] in the background. |alt= |left |321x321px]]

Fawcett wrote three books, one co-authored with her husband, and many articles, some published posthumously.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Rubinstein |first=David |date=1991 |title=Millicent Garrett Fawcett and the Meaning of Women's Emancipation, 1886–99 |journal=Victorian Studies |volume=34 |issue=3 |pages=365–380 |issn=0042-5222|jstor=3828580}}</ref> 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]]'' 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.<ref name="odnb"/> Millicent regularly spoke at girls' schools, women's colleges and adult education centres. In 1904, she resigned from the Unionists over [[free trade]], when [[Joseph Chamberlain]] gained control in his campaign for [[tariff reform]].<ref name="odnb"/>

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,<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Fawcett |first1=Millicent Garrett |title=What I remember |date=1924 |page=238 |url=https://archive.org/stream/whatiremember00mill#page/238|publisher=Putnam}}</ref> 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 [[jingoism|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]].<ref name="FawcettTurner2002">{{Cite book |author1=Millicent Garrett Fawcett |author2=E. M. Turner |title=Josephine Butler: Her Work and Principles and Their Meaning for the Twentieth Century |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bV03AAAACAAJ |year=2002 |publisher=Portrayer Publishers |isbn=978-0-9542632-8-7}}</ref>

==Later years==
In 1919 Fawcett was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Birmingham.<ref name="odnb"/> In the [[1925 New Year Honours]] she was appointed Dame Grand Cross of the [[Order of the British Empire]] (GBE).<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=33007 |date=1 January 1925 |page=5 |supp=y}}</ref>

Fawcett died in 1929 at her London home in [[Gower Street, London|Gower Street]], Bloomsbury.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/information.pl?cite=Xsihshkvu3Ri015%2BpmcwmQ&scan=1 |title=Index entry |access-date=20 July 2017 |work=FreeBMD |publisher=ONS}}</ref> She was cremated at the [[Golders Green Crematorium]] 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]] with an inscription: "A wise constant and courageous Englishwoman. She won citizenship for women."<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.westminster-abbey.org/abbey-commemorations/commemorations/henry-and-millicent-fawcett |title=Henry and Millicent Fawcett |website=Westminster Abbey |language=en |access-date=30 November 2019}}</ref>

==Legacy==
Millicent Fawcett Hall was constructed in 1929 in [[Westminster]] as a place for women's debates and discussions; presently owned by [[Westminster School]], the hall is used by the drama department as a 150-seat studio theatre. [[Saint Felix School]], near Fawcett's birthplace of Aldeburgh, has named one of its boarding houses after her.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://stfelix.co.uk/our-school/the-curriculum/history/ |title=History |website=stfelix.co.uk}}</ref> A [[blue plaque]] for Fawcett was erected in 1954 by London County Council at her home of 45 years in Bloomsbury.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/blue-plaques/fawcett-dame-millicent-garrett-1847-1929 |title=FAWCETT, Dame Millicent Garrett (1847–1929) |publisher=English Heritage |access-date=25 April 2018}}</ref> The archives of Millicent Fawcett are held at [[The Women's Library]], London School of Economics, which in 2018 renamed one of its campus buildings Fawcett House in honor of her role in the British suffrage movement and her connections to the area.<ref>{{Cite web |title=LSE renames Towers after suffrage campaigners |url=https://www.lse.ac.uk/News/Latest-news-from-LSE/2018/11-November-2018/%EF%BB%BFLSE-renames-Towers-after-suffrage-campaigners |website=London School of Economics and Political Science |access-date=4 February 2021}}</ref>

In February 2018, Fawcett won a [[BBC Radio 4]] poll asking Britons to name the most influential woman of the past 100 years.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/hc1MT1MS8M5vQqWPQqbvJZ/todays-most-influential-woman-vote |title=Today's 'most influential woman' vote |publisher=BBC Radio 4}}</ref>

The [[Millicent Fawcett Mile]] is an annual one-mile running race for women, inaugurated in 2018 at the [[Müller Anniversary Games]] in [[London]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=FIRST EVER MILLICENT FAWCETT MILE TO BE HELD AT MÜLLER ANNIVERSARY GAMES |url=https://www.britishathletics.org.uk/news-and-features/first-ever-millicent-fawcett-mile-to-be-held-at-muller-anniversary-games/ |website=www.britishathletics.org.uk/ |date=22 July 2018|access-date=13 July 2021}}</ref>

==Commemoration==
In 2018, 100 years after the passing of the [[Representation of the People Act 1918|Representation of the People Act]], for which Fawcett had successfully campaigned and which granted limited franchise, she became the first woman commemorated with [[Statue of Millicent Fawcett|a statue in Parliament Square]], by the sculptor [[Gillian Wearing]]. This followed a campaign led by [[Caroline Criado Perez]], in which over 84,000 online signatures were gathered.<ref name="statue"/><ref name="smithsonian"/>
[[File:Millicent Fawcett Statue 02 - Courage Calls (27810755638) (cropped).jpg|thumb|200px|Statue of Millicent Fawcett in Parliament Square]]

Fawcett's statue holds a banner quoting from a speech she gave in 1920, after [[Emily Davison]]'s death during the 1913 Epsom Derby: "Courage calls to courage everywhere".<ref name="BBC 20 September 2017"/> At its unveiling [[Theresa May]] 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 Garrett Fawcett."<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/pm-words-at-unveiling-of-millicent-fawcett-statue-24-april-2018 |title=PM words at unveiling of Millicent Fawcett statue: 24 April 2018 |website=GOV.UK |language=en |date=24 April 2018|access-date=11 November 2019}}</ref>

==Notable works==
*1870: ''Political Economy for Beginners'' Full text online<ref>{{cite web | url=https://archive.org/details/fawcetteconomics00fawcrich | title=Political economy for beginners |website=archive.org | date=1911 }}</ref>
*1872: ''Essays and Lectures on Social and Political Subjects'' (some essays by Millicent; others by her husband [[Henry Fawcett]]. One essay she wrote explains the Hare (STV) form of proportional representation)  Full text online.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://archive.org/details/essayslectureson00fawciala | title=Essays and lectures on social and political subjects |website=archive.org | date=1872 }}</ref>
*1872: ''[[s:Electoral Disabilities of Women|Electoral Disabilities of Women]]: a lecture''
*1874: ''Tales in Political Economy'' Full text online<ref>{{cite web | url=https://archive.org/details/talesinpolitica00fawcgoog | title=Tales in political economy |website=archive.org | date=1874 }}</ref>
*1875: ''Janet Doncaster'', a novel, set in her birthplace of Aldeburgh, Suffolk [[iarchive:janetdoncaster00fawcgoog|Full text online]]
*1889: ''Some Eminent Women of our Times: short biographical sketches'' Full text online<ref>{{cite web | url=https://archive.org/details/someeminentwomen00fawciala | title=Some eminent women of our times : Short biographical sketches |website=archive.org | date=1889 }}</ref>
*1895: ''Life of Her Majesty, Queen Victoria'' Full text online<ref>{{cite web | url=https://archive.org/details/lifehermajestyq02fawcgoog | title=Life of Her Majesty Queen Victoria | date=1895 | publisher=Boston, Roberts brothers }}</ref>
*1901: ''Life of the Right Hon. Sir William Molesworth'' Full text online<ref>{{cite web | url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924028037624 | title=Life of the Right. Hon. Sir William Molesworth, bart., M.P., F.R.S. |website=archive.org | date=1901 }}</ref>
*1905: ''Five Famous French Women'' Full text online<ref>{{cite web | url=https://archive.org/details/fivefamousfrench00fawcuoft | title=Five famous French women | date=1907 |website=archive.org}}</ref>
*1912: ''Women's Suffrage : a Short History of a Great Movement'' {{ISBN|0-9542632-4-3}} Full text online<ref>{{cite web | url=https://archive.org/details/womenssuffragesh00fawcuoft | title=Women's suffrage; a short history of a great movement |website=archive.org}}</ref>
*1920: ''The Women's Victory and After: Personal reminiscences, 1911–1918'' Full text online<ref>{{cite web | url=https://archive.org/details/womensvictoryaft00fawcuoft | title=The women's victory - and after : Personal reminiscences, 1911-1918 |website=archive.org | date=1920 }}</ref>
*1924: ''What I Remember (Pioneers of the Woman's Movement)'' {{ISBN|0-88355-261-2}} [[iarchive:dli.ministry.07136|Full text online]]
*1926: Easter in Palestine, 1921-1922 Text online<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://bahai-library.com/fawcett_easter_palestine |title=Bahá'í Library Online |website=bahai-library.com}}</ref>
*1927: ''Josephine Butler: her work and principles and their meaning for the twentieth century'' (written with Ethel M. Turner)
*A selection of her speeches, pamphlets, and newspaper columns is published by UCL Press, discovery.ucl.ac.uk<ref>{{Cite web |editor1=Terras, M. |editor2=Crawford, E. |date=2022 |publisher=UCL Press, discovery.ucl.ac.uk |url=https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10149793/1/Millicent-Garret-Fawcett.pdf |title=Millicent Garret Fawcett: Selected Writings}}.</ref>

==See also==
===People===
*[[Mary Wollstonecraft]], author of ''[[A Vindication of the Rights of Woman]]'' in 1792
*[[Josephine Butler]], early feminist and subject of Millicent Fawcett's biography
*[[Lydia Becker]], founder of the ''[[Women's Suffrage Journal]]''
*[[Emmeline Pankhurst]], founder of the [[Women's Social and Political Union]]
*[[Charlotte Despard]], co-founder of the [[Women's Freedom League]]
*[[List of suffragists and suffragettes]]
*[[List of women's rights activists]]

===History===
*[[Women's suffrage in the United Kingdom]]
*[[History of feminism]]
*[[Timeline of women's suffrage]]

==Gallery==
{{Gallery|title=Portraits
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|File:MIllicent Garrett (26303895210).jpg
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|1866
|File:Millicent_Fawcett2.jpg
|alt2=
|1870
|File:Photo of Millicent Fawcett.jpg
|alt3=
|{{circa|1890s}}
|File:Picture_of_Millicent_Fawcett.jpg
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|1918
|File:Millicent Garrett Fawcett (26550644496).jpg
|alt5=
|{{circa|1920s}}
}}

{{Gallery
|title = Legacies in London
|align = center
|footer =
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|captionstyle =
|File:Millicent Fawcett Statue 02 - Courage Calls (27810755638) (cropped).jpg
 |alt1=
 |[[Statue of Millicent Fawcett|Statue]], Parliament Square
|File:Dame_Millicent_Garrett_Fawcett_1847-1929_pioneer_of_women%27s_suffrage_lived_and_died_here.jpg
 |alt2=
 |[[Blue plaque]], [[Gower Street, London|Gower Street]], Bloomsbury
|File:Dame Millicent Garrett Fawcett 1847-1929 - 2 Gower Street WC1E 6DP.jpg
 |alt3=
 |Home from 1885 to 1929
|File:MFH Foundation stone.jpg
|alt4=
|Foundation stone, Millicent Fawcett Hall, Westminster
|File:Millicent Fawcett Court (North Block) from Lordship Lane N17.jpg
 |alt5=
 |Millicent Fawcett Court, Lordship Lane, Haringey
}}

==References==
{{reflist|colwidth=30em}}

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
{{wikisource|works=or}}
*{{Cite EB1922 |wstitle=Fawcett, Millicent Garrett}}
*[http://www.londonmet.ac.uk/thewomenslibrary The Women's Library (formerly the Fawcett Library)]
*{{Gutenberg author |id=5969}}
*{{FadedPage|id=Fawcett, Millicent Garrett|name=Millicent Fawcett|author=yes}}
*{{Internet Archive author |sname=Millicent Garrett Fawcett}}
*{{Librivox author |id=3285}}
*{{Cite EB9|title=Communism|volume=6|pages=211–219|url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediabrit06newyrich/page/211/mode/2up?view=theater|last=Fawcett|first=Millicent Garrett}} ***''Please note that a wikilink to the article on [Communism] in [EB9] is 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 [[:s:1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Communism|the 11th edition's article]]
*{{UK National Archives ID}}
*{{Cite web |title=Millicent Garrett Fawcett |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00gj7nf |archive-url=https://archive.today/20140706134033/http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00gj7nf |url-status=dead |archive-date=6 July 2014 |website=BBC Radio 4 – Great Lives |publisher=BBC |access-date=1 July 2014 |date=19 December 2006}}
*"[https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10149793/1/Millicent-Garret-Fawcett.pdf Millicent Garrett Fawcett: Selected Writings]". Terras, M. and Crawford, E. (Eds). (2022). UCL Press.

{{Suffrage}}
{{Liberal feminism}}
{{Eagle House}}
{{Authority control}}

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