Millicent Fawcett: a tireless and courageous leader

The Fawcett Society's story begins with Millicent Fawcett, a suffragist and women's rights campaigner who made it her lifetime’s work to secure women the right to vote.

At the age of 19, she organised signatures for the first petition for women’s suffrage, though she was too young to sign it herself. She became President of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (the NUWSS) from 1907-19. With 50,000 members it was the largest organisation agitating for female suffrage at the time. Her powerful and peaceful mass campaign was instrumental in securing the first extension of voting rights for women in 1918.

In 1913, she was awarded a brooch engraved with “For Steadfastness and Courage”, which The Fawcett Society still has today. Millicent Fawcett died in 1929, a year after women were finally given universal suffrage. Her work has continued ever since, with The London Society for Women’s Suffrage renamed as The Fawcett Society in her honour in 1953.

In 2018, 100 years since women first secured the right to vote, Millicent Fawcett made history once again. She was the first woman commemorated with a statue in Parliament Square – a landmark moment for the wider suffrage movement, and for women everywhere.

We’ve been fighting for gender equality for over 150 years and continue to do that now in 2025. We work to close the gender pay gap, get more women into roles of political power and smash stereotypes that hold our children back from reaching their full potential. We will continue to fight everyday until gender equality has been achieved. 

Take a stand for women's rights today

Equality is non-negotiable. It will not happen unless we make it happen. Every gain for women has been fought for, collectively, and every step forward must be protected

We will honour Millicent Fawcett’s legacy by continuing to build a joyful, powerful feminist movement that demands a fairer future for ALL women and girls.

Join us. Become a Fawcett member and be part of a community that refuses to settle for less, one that challenges sexism, racism and misogyny in all its forms, amplifies women’s voices, and works every day for lasting change.

Your support fuels campaigns that change laws, shape culture, and dismantles the systems that hold women back. Together, we can create the feminist future we all deserve.

Join the Fawcett Society as a member today.