Britain Honors Suffragette Millicent Garrett Fawcett With Statue In Parliament Square
/
Britain, now governed by its second female prime minister and a queen who enjoys the status of being the world's longest-reigning monarch, will get its first statue of a woman in Parliament Square in London.
Prime Minister Theresa May announced that Millicent Garrett Fawcett, a key leader in Britain's suffragette movement will be honored with a statue enjoying the company of Winston Churchill, Abraham Lincoln (who knew!!) and Nelson Mandela.
Mrs. Fawcett formed the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies in 1897 and died at 82 in 1929, a year after all women in Britain won the right to vote. She may be dead for nearly a century, but Mrs. Fawcett, Mrs. May said, "continues to inspire the battle against the injustices of today." May added: "It is right and proper that she is honored in Parliament Square alongside former leaders who changed our country. Her statue will stand as a reminder of how politics only has value if it works for everyone in society."
A 5 million pound fund organized to celebrate next year's centenary of the British women's vote. Fawcett considered herself to be a moderate suffragette in contrast to campaigners like Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst, a mother and daughter team who engaged in sometimes violent protests on behalf of women.
