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June 11, 2018
Millicent Fawcett's 171st Birthday
When the British Parliament passed the Representation of the People Act in 1918, allowing British women to vote for the first time in history, Dame Millicent Garrett Fawcett’s lifelong ambition was fulfilled.
Born June 11, 1847, the eighth of 10 children, Millicent was raised by independent-minded parents who emphasized the importance of education and free speech. Her oldest sister Elizabeth became Britain’s first female doctor, and Millicent began collecting signatures in support of female suffrage before she was old enough to sign the petitions herself. "I cannot say I became a suffragist,” she wrote in her memoir ‘The Women’s Victory—And After.’ “I always was one, from the time I was old enough to think at all about the principles of Representative Government."
Best known for her captivating speeches, Fawcett used her platform as President of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies to become a public advocate for nonviolent campaigning.
In April 2018, a bronze statue was erected of Dame Fawcett in the courtyard of London’s Parliament Square, alongside likenesses of Nelson Mandela, Winston Churchill, and Mahatma Gandhi. The glistening sculpture, made her the first female added to the garden’s distinguished denizens — a fitting tribute to the woman who said “Courage calls to courage everywhere, and its voice cannot be denied.”
Happy 171st Birthday, Dame Fawcett!
Doodle illustrated by Pearl Law.
Early concept sketches of the Doodle below