Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Millicent Garrett Fawcett
-
Standard Name: Fawcett, Millicent Garrett
Birth Name: Millicent Garrett
Married Name: Millicent Fawcett
Indexed Name: Mrs Henry Fawcett
MGF
was a very effective political writer. Early in her career, she was well regarded for her works on political economy, which included three successful books and numerous articles and reviews for periodicals including Macmillan's Magazine, the Fortnightly, and the Athenæum. Her writings and speeches on higher education for women were very influential. She wrote two novels; the first was a success, but second has been lost. Later, she became primarily known for her activism and considerable body of works (books, essays, lectures, and speeches) dealing with issues in the women's movement, particularly with women's suffrage.
Like her patriotic colleagues Millicent Garrett Fawcett
, Barbara Bodichon
, and Ray Strachey
, ER
was a strong believer in women's fundamental responsibilities as citizens, in their commitment to improving the state despite misogynistic...
politics
Katharine Tynan
KT
became a member of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies
(established by Millicent Garrett Fawcett
in 1897) around 1910, on moving to Tunbridge Wells, where she found a strong Suffrage party.
Tynan, Katharine. The Middle Years. Constable.
380
politics
Marie Belloc Lowndes
The letter challenged a recent antisuffragist manifesto, and stressed three points from Prime Minister Asquith
's statement to suffragists of 14 August. The points were that women had rendered as effective service to their country...
politics
Margaret Haig, Viscountess Rhondda
This prompted Lady Rhondda to call the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act a leaky saucepan.
Eoff, Shirley. Viscountess Rhondda: Equalitarian Feminist. Ohio State University Press.
87
Millicent Garrett Fawcett
called this decision simply scandalous.
Eoff, Shirley. Viscountess Rhondda: Equalitarian Feminist. Ohio State University Press.
While researching her suffrage play, Votes for Women!, ER
became an active member of the suffrage movement. In July 1906 she began attending meetings of the Women's Social and Political Union
, and her...
politics
Stella Benson
After the First World War broke out in August 1914, SB
sided with Flora Annie Steel
in a Women Writers' Suffrage League
dispute over supporting the war. Benson and Steel believed in supporting the war...
politics
Mary Augusta Ward
In a public debate over suffrage at the Passmore Edwards Settlement
in London, Millicent Garrett Fawcett
defeated MAW
(by 235 votes to 74).
felt strongly that the woman's movement should denounce the war and decline any co-operation with the government, even for relief work. She believed that peace propaganda...
politics
Edith Lyttelton
These women's pay, said the letter, was worse than the sweated wages universally condemned in pre-war days.
“The Times Digital Archive 1785-2007”. Thompson Gale: The Times Digital Archive.
(15 February 1921): 6
Later that year, EL
was also numbered among the women who tried to help...
Publishing
Isabella Ormston Ford
On 23 April 1892 IOF
contributed an article entitled Women and the Labour Party to a special series for the Leeds Times on Social and Political Questions by Representative English Women. Other notable contributors...
Reception
Annie Besant
The publication of the pamphlet resulted in obscenity charges, hardly a surprise since publisher and bookseller Charles Watts
had pled guilty to obscenity the previous winter for selling copies of the same text.
Banks, Olive. The Biographical Dictionary of British Feminists. New York University Press.
When IOF
and her sister Emily decided to move from the large house when their advanced age made it too much to manage, their friend Millicent Garrett Fawcett
wrote that to many of us Adel...
Textual Features
George Bernard Shaw
Mrs Warren's daughter Vivie Warren, a classic New Woman character, is based in part on Millicent Garrett Fawcett
's daughter Phillipa
, who had recently placed first in mathematics at Newnham College
. Her mother's...
Textual Features
Ann Oakley
A Note about the Title explains what she means by Jerusalem: a land we aspire to live in, regardless of the fact that we're unlikely to even make it.
Oakley, Ann. Telling the Truth about Jerusalem. Basil Blackwell.