Millicent Fawcett, quiet force behind the long battle for women's suffrage

The philosopher J S Mill was briefly a Liberal MP and spoke in favour of women’s suffrage in a debate on the Second Reform Bill in 1867.

He contended that there was ‘no adequate justification’ for excluding half the population from the parliamentary franchise and the Constitution. Millicent Garrett Fawcett, a young woman born into a prosperous middle-class family, heard Mill’s speech in the House of Commons and the experience transformed her life.

Through her support of J S Mill, Millicent became acquainted with others of a similar mind, including the Liberal MP for Brighton, Henry Fawcett. He had been blinded in a shooting accident but the pair felt a close intellectual affinity and married in 1867, despite the fact he was 14 years her senior.

Millicent acted as Henry’s secretary but she combined this role with a writing career of her own. She wrote a short book ‘Political Economy for Beginners‘ which was much admired for its clarity of exposition. Millicent had a great ability to simplify complex arguments and was also an excellent public speaker.

In addition to campaigning for women’s suffrage, Millicent also campaigned for access to higher education for women. She was a founder of Newham College, Cambridge, in 1871. Her daughter, Phillipa would later attend the college.

In 1884, Henry Fawcett was taken ill, while serving in William Gladstone’s second administration as postmaster general. He died on November 6 1884, leaving Millicent a widow at the age of 38. After her husband’s death, she devoted more of her time to political campaigning.

Although there was no progress with respect to the parliamentary franchise, there had been significant progress in local politics. Since 1869 women ratepayers were eligible for inclusion on the local government electoral register. They could serve on some local bodies. By 1885, 78 women were members of a school board and another 37 were members of a Board of Guardians. The Local Government Act of 1894 gave women the right to serve on parish, rural district and urban district councils.

In 1897, Mrs Fawcett was elected president of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS) which was an umbrella body of suffrage societies.

This organisation campaigned principally for equal rights for women, but also supported other causes such as the abolition of the slave trade, and forming a relief fund for South African women and children during the Boer war. In 1901, she was appointed by the Conservative government to a delegation to South Africa to investigate the treatment of the Boer civilian population.

1903 saw the formation of the more militant Women’s Social and Political Union under the leadership of Emmeline Pankhurst. Mrs Fawcett and Mrs Pankhurst had much in common. Both were inspired by J S Mill and were the wives of Liberal politicians. Both lost their husbands early. Both were very determined women and superb organisers. The major difference was Mrs Fawcett was prepared to work within the system but Mrs Pankhurst chose not to do so.

Most women who sought the vote in the years before the Great War were not suffragettes but suffragists. The NUWSS had around 100,000 members whereas Emmeline Pankhurst’s WSPU had only 2,000 members.

On March 16 1904 the House of Commons passed a resolution in favour of female suffrage by 184 votes to 70, a triumph for Mrs Fawcett. She had won the intellectual argument for votes for women.

Mrs Fawcett thought that the general election of 1906 had brought into the Commons as many as 400 sympathetic MPs. Therefore the refusal of the new Liberal government to countenance giving women the vote was a major disappointment. This was at least in part a consequence of the activities of Mrs Pankhurst’s suffragettes and their willingness to engage in direct action.

Mrs Fawcett and the NUWSS remained committed to achieving the vote through constitutional means and argued that militancy was counter-productive. She believed that the suffragettes were ‘the most powerful allies the anti-suffragists have’. She was appalled when the WPSU’s ‘calculated and limited threats to public order’ spilled over into actual criminal conduct and damage to property. She regarded the WPSU’s call on ‘the lowest class of London toughs’ to ‘rush’ the House of Commons in October 1908 as despicable.

In the years before the outbreak of the Great War the WPSU delayed rather than hastened the extension of the franchise to women. On November 18 1910 (‘Black Friday’) WPSU members attempted to ‘rush’ the Palace of Westminster and received very rough treatment from the police. Mrs Fawcett publicly deplored the conduct of the police but privately railed against ‘those idiots who go out smashing windows and bashing minsters’ hats over their eyes’. On March 4 1912 the WPSU went on the rampage in Knightsbridge, sabotaging an initiative which might have given the women the vote that year.

The Great War, especially the contribution of women to the war effort, transformed the social and political landscape. In 1916 Mrs Fawcett petitioned Parliament to extend the franchise to women and in 1918 the ‘Qualification of Women Act’ was passed – giving some women over the age of 30 the vote. Mrs Fawcett was criticised for accepting this restriction but she did not wish to jeopardise the prospects for partial success by standing out for more.

The NUWSS was disbanded and shortly afterwards Mrs Fawcett retired from active politics. In 1920 she published a book entitled ‘The Women’s Victory’.

In 1928 when Parliament extended the franchise to women on the same terms as men, she was in Parliament to witness the fruition of her life’s work. She wrote: ‘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.’

On May 30 1929 women participated in their first general election on exactly the same terms as men. Millicent Fawcett died on August 5 later that year.