Wise, constant and courageous: Millicent Garrett Fawcett

2016 marks the 150th anniversary of the Fawcett Society, the United Kingdom’s leading charity for women’s equality and rights at home, at work and in public life. To mark the occasion, this display presents a number of photographs of Dame Millicent Garrett Fawcett (1847-1929), leader of the constitutional women's suffrage movement and author. In 1866, Fawcett began her life’s work leading a powerful, mass campaign for women to be granted the right to vote. Under her presidency the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies became the largest of its kind with 50,000 members by 1913. Finally in 1928, a year before Fawcett’s death, the Equal Franchise Act gave women the vote on the same basis as men. This display is part of a wider celebration of Fawcett, the society and the achievements of the women’s movement.

See the Fawcett family tree