Courage calls to courage everywhere

The streets of the capitals of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland filled with courage on Sunday, 11 June 2018.

Deeds not words

People were marching, cheering, singing and rejoicing in the centenary of women winning the right to vote in 1918 — and vowing to continue the struggle for true equality for all.

There were thousands of banners, all works of art, that repeated suffragette slogans such as 'Deeds Not Words', or made more contemporary calls to action. One banner read 'A woman's place is in the boardroom', while another declared 'Love football, hate homophobia'.

One group in London chanted “Equal seats, equal voices” as they marched under a banner calling for equal numbers of men and women in Parliament.

Millicent Fawcett

11 June was chosen as it is the birthday of suffragist Millicent Fawcett (1847 - 1929), who was a leading figure in the women's suffrage movement and formed the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies in 1897.

“What draws men and women together is stronger than the brutality and tyranny which drive them apart.”

It was the largest association of its kind and a precursor to the more famous and radical Suffragette movement led by the Pankhursts. Fawcett famously declared as a rallying cry that 'Courage calls to courage everywhere'.

The organisation, of which Dame Millicent was president until 1919, distanced itself from the militant activities of the suffragettes and pursued a campaign of nonviolence to achieve its goals.

Its tactics included peaceful demonstration and the lobbying of MPs, and it stressed that its membership consisted only of law-abiding suffragists. This was a crucial difference from the militant tactics of the Pankhursts' Women's Social and Political Union.

Google celebrated the 171st anniversary of her birth with its own Doodle, using green, white and red — the colours of the movement — which stood for Give Women Rights.

Legacy

Dame Millicent, who was famed for her clear yet expressive speaking voice and razor-sharp intellect, was honoured with the unveiling of a statue in Parliament Square, London — on 24 April 2018.

The monument, created by Turner Prize-winning artist Gillian Wearing, was the first of a woman to be unveiled in the square. It marked a century since MPs passed the Representation of the People Act, which granted some women the right to vote for the first time.

Millicent Fawcett believed in mobilising women from all backgrounds. She actively engaged working-class women, appointed them as organisers and worked with trade unions. She said that she believed in a “grand freemasonry between different classes of women”.