A bronze standing statue of the suffragist leader Millicent Fawcett stands in the heart of Parliament Square in Westminster, London. It was the first statue of a woman and the first statue by a woman in this square.
Millicent Fawcett (1847-1929) was a women’s rights activist for six decades. During the unveiling ceremony of her statue on 24 April 2018, prime minister Theresa May stated there would not be any women in parliament without the dedication of Fawcett for women voting rights.
The idea and force behind the erection of this statue were by the activist, journalist, and author, Caroline Criado Perez, who also campaigned to put Jane Austen on the £10 notes. When Criado Perez went for a run on International Women’s Day, March 8th, 2016, she noticed the lack of female statues in Parliament Square. All the 11 sculptures were of notable men. And so she decided to change it.
Her petition raised awareness of the lack of female representation in the public space and got lots of public attention and government support. It was her idea to honor Millicent Fawcett with a statue in 2018, the year of the 100 years celebration of the passage of the Representation of the People Act 1918 when some women finally got voting rights.
The talented artist Gillian Wearing was chosen by the Suffrage Statue Commission to create the statue. Fawcett is depicted in a similar way to the other sculptures in the square. She is in her 50’s, the time she became the president of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies. Her hands are holding a banner with the inspiring words: Courage Calls to Courage Everywhere, taken from the speech she gave after the death of the suffragette Emily Wilding Davison.
Her pedestal bears the names and portraits of 55 women and four men who fought for British suffrage.
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