Millicent Garrett Fawcett (1847–1929) was a leading campaigner for equal rights for women in Britain. A political leader and writer, she led the biggest suffrage organization, the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS), from 1897 to 1919 and played a key role in gaining women the vote. Known as the Suffragists, members of the NUWSS sought peaceful means to achieve their aim, while the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU), or Suffragettes, vowed to use any means necessary, including violence, to get the vote. Millicent Fawcett was also devoted to the struggle to improve women's opportunities for education.

Early life

Born in Aldeburgh, Suffolk, Millicent Garrett was sent to London at the age of 12, along with her sister Elizabeth (later Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, the first female doctor in the UK) to attend boarding school. When she was 19, Millicent went to hear a speech on equal rights for women given by the radical politician, John Stuart Mill. Impressed by Mill's practical approach, Millicent decided to become actively involved in his campaign.

After marrying Henry Fawcett, the radical MP for Brighton, in 1867, she became noted as an effective speaker—at a time when women rarely spoke on public platforms. She also played a role in the founding of Newnham College, Cambridge, a college for women, in 1871. Henry Fawcett died of pleurisy in 1884, leaving Millicent a widow at just 38.

President of the NUWSS

After her husband’s death, Millicent devoted more of her time to campaigning. In 1897, she was elected president of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS), the largest group campaigning for equal rights for women.

In 1901 Millicent was appointed by the British government to investigate the “atrocious” conditions that were suffered by Boer families in the concentration camps set up during the Second Boer War (1899–1902) in South Africa. She also supported many other causes, such as curbing child abuse and ending the practice of excluding women from courtrooms when sexual offences were under consideration.

Suffragists v. Suffragettes

The Liberal government refused to give women the vote during their period in office, 1901–14. Some women thought the peaceful methods of the NUWSS were failing. In 1903 a new organization, the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU), was set up in Manchester and led by Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughter Christabel.

The Suffragettes' willingness to resort to violence opened a deep divide in the women’s movement. Millicent and the NUWSS, the Suffragists, remained committed to achieving the vote through peaceful means. They argued that militancy would actually harm women's chances of gaining the vote by discouraging the government from allowing the issue to be raised in Parliament. Violence might also turn public opinion against them.

Votes for women

After World War I, things changed. Prime Minister David Lloyd George supported women’s suffrage, while his pre-war predecessor, Herbert Henry Asquith, had not. Aware that women had been actively working in industry to support the war effort, public opinion also shifted behind the women’s cause. In February 1918, the Representation of the People Act was passed, giving women over the age of 30 the right to vote. Later the same year, the Parliament (Qualification of Women) Act 1918 was passed, allowing women to be elected to Parliament.