Henry Fawcett died on 6 November 1884 and his death leads Millicent to become more politically active. In 1890 Millicent Fawcett was elected President of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS). Fawcett believed the NUWSS should campaign for a wide variety of causes and that they should campaign through constitutional methods. Millicent Fawcett and the NUWSS worried that the militant tactics of the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) would isolate prospective supporters and would prove to the opposition that women could not be responsible or trustworthy with the vote. Although, Fawcett did not agree with the militant tactics used by the WSPU, she admired the courage and bravery of the suffragettes. The WSPU was established in 1903 by Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters; Adele, Chistabel and Sylvia. After becoming increasingly dissatisfied with the government‘s lack of response, they sought maximum publicity in order to keep the suffrage issue relevant.
Prostitution was a rising predicament within Britain, often regarded as a social evil. “In 1860 there were apparently 25.000 prostitutes in London alone.” Most people chose to ignore the situation and look on in repulsion. However, Fawcett believed that if women were granted the right to vote it would result in prostitution reducing. Millicent Fawcett began to help Josephine Butler in her campaign against the white slave traffic. Fawcett supported Butler’s belief that the government should take action to reduce prostitution within Britain and was particularly concerned with the issue of child prostitution, she demanded an increase in the age of consent from twelve to sixteen.. In 1885, William Stead and Bramwell Booth members of the Salvation Army worked together in order to expose the availability of and growth in child prostitution. In July 1885, Stead purchased a thirteen year- old girl, Eliza Armstrong, for the amount of £5. Stead proved how easy it was to lure young girls into prostitution. Due to the amount of publicity generated by the Armstrong affair, Parliament passed the Criminal Law Amendment Act which successfully raised the age of consent from thirteen to sixteen.
Fawcett also supported Clementina Black with her attempts at persuading the government to grant women equal payment with men; equal pay for equal work. After her husband’s death Fawcett became involved with the Personal Rights Association, which took an active role in exposing men who preyed on vulnerable young women. In 1886, unlike her character, she became a participant in a physical assault on an army major who had been harassing a servant of a friend of hers. William Stead witnessed the attack and claimed, “They threw flour over his waxed moustache and in his eyes and... they pinned a paper on his back, and made him the derision of a crowded street...in the sequel he was turned out of a club, and cut by a few lady friends – among them a young lady of some means to whom he was engaged... Mrs. Fawcett had no pity; she would have cashiered him if she could.”3
Fawcett and the NUWSS remained faithful to the use of the non-violent, constitutional approach to gaining the vote for women, even when becoming furious and frustrated with the attitude of the Liberal government, led by Asquith, who refused to establish, or even instigate, legislation. The government was distracted with other problems; the naval arms race with the German Empire, Irish Home Rule, reform of the House of Lords and the outbreak of World War 1. All these problems contributed to the delay for female emancipation. Despite the fact that Fawcett had always been a Liberal, Fawcett and the NUWSS made the decision to withdraw their support from the Liberal government. This was due to the party’s lack of total commitment towards women’s suffrage, and decided instead to support Labour Party candidates during general elections, believing the Labour Party to be more sympathetic towards their policies.
The NUWSS declared that it was suspending all political activity until the war was over. Unlike the WSPU, the NUWSS made the decision not to persuade young men to enlist in the armed forces. Although Fawcett herself supported the First World War, many members of the NUWSS were pacifists and pressured Fawcett to argue against the war, Fawcett refused to argue against the war and proclaimed “I believe it is akin to treason to talk of peace.”4 World War 1 helped advance women politically and economically. Between 1914 and 1918, approximately two million women replaced men in employment, thereby increasing the percentage of women in employment from 24% in July 1914 to 37% by November 1918. Due to women’s involvement on the Home Front during the war, women gained a wider array of occupations as female employees and advanced the collapse of the traditional employment previously given to women, particularly employment within the domestic sphere. Fawcett explains the benefits of the First World War, “The war revolutionised the industrial position of women- it found them serfs and left them free.” Women metaphorically stepped in to their husband’s shoes, the unemployment rate, among women, rapidly declined. Although earning less money than men for the same job, women were delighted at the prospect of work, giving them a certain sense of freedom and individuality. The women working in the munitions factories jeopardised their health and their fertility, 950,000 women were employed in munitions factories by Armistice Day. It could no longer be declared that women had not earned the right to vote, although women did not actively engage in battle, women were the ones who supplied men with weapons for the war at a great cost. Without women working on the Home Front the war would have certainly been lost. The government realised this and in response to their heroic efforts on the Home Front, government rewarded women with the right to vote, although initially only rewarded to women over the age of 30. It would not be for a further decade that women, achieved absolute political equality, were allowed to vote over the age of 21, the same age as that of men.
It was not until March 1928 that Britain became a universal emancipated and therefore a fully democratic country; it was during the nineteenth century that Britain had begun to change from being ruled by the elite, who were, historically, the only group represented in Parliament – the elitist rule at the expense of the poor. Cynics of the suffrage had witnessed for ten years that women could be trusted with the vote, this resulted in a bill being introduced in March 1928 to give women the right to vote on the same terms as men. There was little opposition in Parliament towards the bill and it became law on 2nd of July 1928. Women gained the right to vote mainly because of their efforts on the Home Front during World War One. Millicent Fawcett was the most prominent figure within the suffrage movement, President of the most politically mature pressure group with 100,000 members, she achieved more than any other individual in regards to securing political involvement for women within Parliament. Many leading figures of the suffrage died before achieving political equality including; Elizabeth Garret Anderson, Emmeline Pankhurst and Josephine Butler. Millicent Fawcett had the divine privilege to witness the vote and later that night she wrote in her dairy, “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.” 5
