Born Millicent Garrett on June 11, 1847, in Aldeburgh, Suffolk, England. She was the 7th of 10 children of Newson & Louisa Garrett. Newson was a wealthy merchant & shipowner, which allowed for his children to be raised in a highly privileged environment. Millicent and her siblings were lucky that their parents weren't supporters of the common idea of male supremacy and they encouraged interest in political issues of the day, as well as as free-thinking and freedom of expression. Two of Millicent's sisters, also became influential figures themselves, Elizabeth Garrett-Anderson, was one of the first female doctors in England and Agnes became one of the first female interior designers in Britain. The event that really launched her into the suffragette movement was when she listened to John Stuart Mill give a speech at a election meeting, in July 1865, when she was only 17.
Millicent was present in the House of Commons when John Stuart Mill introduced the famed amendment to the 1867 Representation of the People Act . The act gave over 6 million women the right to vote and a decade later British women received the vote on equal grounds to men. Millicent became the president of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies, two months later. She was a speaker at the organization's first public meeting. This would've taken a great deal of courage, since for a woman to speak publicly like this was deemed inappropriate and even downright immoral. Millicent didn't stop lecturing for long over the next six decades.
Millicent's arguments in favor of women were quite simple. She believed women & men weren't the same: if they were, votes for women wouldn't be such a important political movement. The sexes had different abilities, but their strengths overlapped and politics were of mutual interest. Millicent argued that women were capable of holding positions of responsibility in society, such as sitting on school boards, so should be given the right to vote. Since women as well as men payed taxes, women should have a say in how those taxes are spent. Similarly, since parliament made laws to be obeyed by all- women as well as men should take part in making those laws. Simple but absolute truths, in Millicent's eyes.
In April 1867, Millicent married, Henry Fawcett, a radical politician & professor of political economy at Cambridge. She helped him overcome his struggles with blindness and he resolutely supported her work for women's rights. Millicent acted as Henry's guide & secretary, often reading out his academic papers and taking notes for him during House of Commons debates. But she was never second best, she ran both their households in Cambridge & London and was also a writer herself. Her first article, about women's education, was published in Macmillan's Magazine, in 1868.
Henry held the position of Postmaster-General in parliament but he was opposed to many political decisions made by the heads of government including the Prime Minister, William Gladstone. Though his government career was on a precarious edge, it was his untimely sudden death, in November 1884, that ended his career. Millicent was left a widow, at only 34. She moved in with her sister, Agnes, who was living in Bloomsbury & was sustained by her extended family, literature, music & of course her work.
During WWI, she dedicated her organization to the war effort. After the war, Millicent became a dame of the British Empire. In 1919, Millicent retired from active leadership of the suffrage union, which had been renamed, the National Union for Equal Citizenship.
Millicent was a leading figure in the suffragist movement in England for 50 years. Needless to say, she struggled against total opposition from men. Beginning in 1905, she also had to rebuff public hostility of militant suffragists led by, Emmeline Pankhurst & her daughters, whose violent, extremist methods, she disagreed with. Millicent also founded Newnham College, Cambridge, established in 1875. Newnham was one of the first university colleges for women in England.
Millicent Fawcett died on August 5, 1929, in London, England. Over her decades long career, Millicent Fawcett published a number of works including, Political Economy for Beginners (1870), which is a text still used even after Millicent's death. As well as, Janet Dancaster (1875), The Women's Victory & After (1920) & What I Remember (1924).
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Millicent-Fawcett
https://www.historytoday.com/archive/millicent-garrett-fawcett
YOU ARE READING
Female Rebels & Activists
Não Ficção"We need women who are so strong they can be gentle, so educated they can be humble, so fierce they can be compassionate, so passionate they can be rational and so disciplined they can be free" ...
