Millicent Fawcett
Dame Millicent Fawcett GBE | |
---|---|
Born | Millicent Garrett 11 June 1847 |
Died | 5 August 1929 Bloomsbury, London, England | (aged 82)
Monuments | Statue of Millicent Fawcett |
Occupation(s) | Suffragist, union leader |
Spouse | |
Children | Philippa Fawcett |
Parent(s) | Newson Garrett Louisa Dunnell |
Relatives | Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, Agnes Garrett (sisters) Louisa Garrett Anderson (niece) |
Dame Millicent Garrett Fawcett
Biography
Early life
Fawcett was born on 11 June 1847 in Aldeburgh,[3] to Newson Garrett (1812–1893), a businessman from nearby Leiston, and his London wife Louisa (née Dunnell, 1813–1903).[7][8] She was the eighth of their ten children.[3]
According to the Stracheys, "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
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."[10]
Aged twelve in 1858, Millicent Fawcett was sent to London with her sister Elizabeth to attend a private boarding school in Blackheath. Millicent found
Marriage and family
John Stuart Mill introduced Millicent Fawcett to many other women's rights activists, including Henry Fawcett, a 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.[3] Henry had been blinded in a shooting accident in 1858 and Millicent acted as his secretary.[12] 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 had some radical beliefs in support of proportional representation, individualistic and free trade principles, and opportunities for women.[3] Their only child was Philippa Fawcett, born in 1868, who 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.[13]
In 1868 Millicent joined the London Suffrage Committee, and in 1869 spoke at the first public pro-suffrage meeting held in London.[3] In March 1870 she spoke in Brighton, her husband's constituency. As a speaker she was said to have a clear voice.[3] In 1870 she published her short Political Economy for Beginners, which was "wildly successful",[14] running through 10 editions in 41 years.[3][14][15] In 1872 she and her husband published Essays and Lectures on Social and Political Subjects, containing eight essays by Millicent.[3][16] In 1875 she co-founded Newnham Hall and served on its council.[17]
Despite many interests and duties, Millicent, with Agnes Garrett, raised four of their cousins, who had been orphaned early in life: Amy Garrett Badley, Fydell Edmund Garrett, Elsie Garrett (later a prominent botanical artist in South Africa), and Elsie's twin, John.[18]
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 Garrett.
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"; Fawcett reasserted the reputation of the early feminist philosopher and claimed her as an early figure in the struggle for the vote.[21]
Fawcett was granted an honorary
Political activities
Fawcett wrote three books, one co-authored with her husband, and many articles, some published posthumously.
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,
Later years
In 1919 Fawcett was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Birmingham.[3] In the 1925 New Year Honours she was appointed Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire (GBE).[28]
Millicent Fawcett died in 1929 at her London home in Gower Street, Bloomsbury.[29] 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."[30]
Legacy
Millicent Fawcett Hall was constructed in 1929 in
In February 2018, Fawcett was announced as winner of a
Commemoration
In 2018, 100 years after the passing of the Representation of the People Act, for which Fawcett had successfully campaigned and which granted limited franchise, she became the first woman commemorated with 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.[4][6]
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".[5] 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."[37]
Notable works
- 1870: Political Economy for Beginners Full text online
- 1872: Essays and Lectures on Social and Political Subjects (with Henry Fawcett) Full text online.
- 1872: Electoral Disabilities of Women: a lecture
- 1874: Tales in Political Economy Full text online
- 1875: Janet Doncaster, a novel, set in her birthplace of Aldeburgh, Suffolk Full text online
- 1889: Some Eminent Women of our Times: short biographical sketches Full text online
- 1895: Life of Her Majesty, Queen Victoria Full text online
- 1901: Life of the Right Hon. Sir William Molesworth Full text online
- 1905: Five Famous French Women Full text online
- 1912: Women's Suffrage : a Short History of a Great Movement
- 1920: The Women's Victory and After: Personal reminiscences, 1911–1918 Full text online
- 1924: What I Remember (Pioneers of the Woman's Movement)
- 1926: Easter in Palestine, 1921-1922 Text online
- 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 in "Millicent Garrett Fawcett: Selected Writings". Terras, M. and Crawford, E. (Eds). (2022). UCL Press.
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
Gallery
-
Home from 1885 to 1929
-
Foundation stone, Millicent Fawcett Hall, Westminster
-
Millicent Fawcett Court, Lordship Lane, Haringey
External links
- Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1922). Encyclopædia Britannica (12th ed.). London & New York: The Encyclopædia Britannica Company. .
- The Women's Library (formerly the Fawcett Library)
- Works by Millicent Fawcett at Project Gutenberg
- Works by Millicent Fawcett at Faded Page (Canada)
- Works by or about Millicent Fawcett at Internet Archive
- Works by Millicent Fawcett at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
- Fawcett, Millicent Garrett (1878). "Communism". In Baynes, T. S. (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 6 (9th ed.). New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. pp. 211–219. ***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 the 11th edition's article
- "Archival material relating to Millicent Fawcett". UK National Archives.
- "Millicent Garrett Fawcett". BBC Radio 4 – Great Lives. BBC. 19 December 2006. Retrieved 1 July 2014.
- "Millicent Garrett Fawcett: Selected Writings". Terras, M. and Crawford, E. (Eds). (2022). UCL Press.
References
- ^ Maya Oppenheim (11 June 2018). "Millicent Fawcett: Who was the tireless suffragist and how did she change women's voting rights forever?". The Independent. Archived from the original on 14 May 2022.
- ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 11 November 2019.
- ^ . Retrieved 4 January 2017.
- ^ a b "Millicent Fawcett: Courage calls to courage everywhere". politics.co.uk. Retrieved 11 June 2018.
- ^ a b "Millicent Fawcett statue gets Parliament Square go ahead". BBC News Online. BBC. 20 September 2017. Retrieved 20 September 2017.
- ^ a b Katz, Brigit (4 April 2017). "London's Parliament Square Will Get Its First Statue". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved 4 April 2017.
- ^ Manton, Jo (1965). Elizabeth Garrett Anderson: England's First Woman Physician. London: Methuen. p. 20.
- ISBN 978-0-262-15031-6.
- ISBN 978-1539098164.
- ^ Garrett Anderson, Louisa (1939). Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, 1836–1917. Faber and Faber.
- doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/52391. Retrieved 20 December 2022. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- About.com. Retrieved 23 April 2009.
- ^ Caroline Series, "And what became of the women?", Mathematical Spectrum, Vol. 30 (1997/1998), pp. 49–52.
- ^ a b "Millicent Garrett Fawcett, 1847–1929". The History of Economic Thought. Retrieved 24 April 2018.
- ^ See Fawcett, Millicent Garrett (1911). Political Economy for Beginners (10 ed.). London, UK: Macmillan and Co. Retrieved 22 June 2014. via Archive.org.
- ^ See Fawcett, Henry; Fawcett, Millicent Garrett (1872). Essays and Lectures on Social and Political Subjects. London, UK: Macmillan and Co. Retrieved 22 June 2014. via Archive.org.
- ISBN 978-0-313-30331-9.
- ^ Heesom, D. (1 March 1977). "A distinguished but little known artist: Elsie Garrett-Rice". Veld & Flora. 63 (1).
- ISBN 978-1-136-89777-1.
- ^ JSTOR 3828580.
- ISBN 1-84408-141-9.
- ISBN 978-0-312-21853-9.
- JSTOR 4288749.
- ^ National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies. "NUWSS". National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies.
- ^ Garrett Fawcett, Millicent (1924). What I remember. Putnam. p. 185.
- ^ Fawcett, Millicent Garrett (1924). What I remember. Putnam. p. 238.
- ISBN 978-0-9542632-8-7.
- ^ "No. 33007". The London Gazette (Supplement). 1 January 1925. p. 5.
- ^ "Index entry". FreeBMD. ONS. Retrieved 20 July 2017.
- ^ "Henry and Millicent Fawcett". Westminster Abbey. Retrieved 30 November 2019.
- ^ School site.
- ^ "FAWCETT, Dame Millicent Garrett (1847-1929)". English Heritage. Retrieved 25 April 2018.
- ^ "LSE renames Towers after suffrage campaigners". London School of Economics and Political Science. Retrieved 4 February 2021.
- ^ "Today's 'most influential woman' vote". BBC Radio 4.
- ^ "FIRST EVER MILLICENT FAWCETT MILE TO BE HELD AT MÜLLER ANNIVERSARY GAMES". www.britishathletics.org.uk/. 22 July 2018. Retrieved 13 July 2021.
- ^ Desk, OV Digital (10 June 2023). "11 June: Remembering Millicent Fawcett on Birthday". Observer Voice. Retrieved 10 June 2023.
- ^ "PM words at unveiling of Millicent Fawcett statue: 24 April 2018". GOV.UK. 24 April 2018. Retrieved 11 November 2019.