Fawcett Society

The Fawcett Society is a membership charity in the United Kingdom which campaigns for women's rights. The organisation dates back to 1866, when Millicent Garrett Fawcett dedicated her life to the peaceful campaign for women's suffrage. From 1907 it was known as the London Society for Women’s Suffrage, but had several subsequent name changes. Between 1919 and 1926 it was known as the London Society for Women’s Service, and from 1926-1953 as the London & National Society for Women’s Service. In 1953 it was renamed the Fawcett Society.

It is a charity registered with the Charity Commission and has a membership of around 3,000. Its supporters include Carrie Gracie, Emma Thompson, and Ophelia Lovibond. The organisation's vision is a society in which women and girls in all their diversity are equal and free to fulfil their potential, creating a stronger, happier, better future for all. Its key areas of campaign work include equal pay, equal power, tackling gender norms and stereotypes and defending women's rights. The Society publishes its own research and aims to bring together politicians, academics, grassroots activists and wider civil society in service of gender equality.

There are local Fawcett Society groups across the UK, which support the campaigning work of Fawcett and organise events and activities in their areas. Locations include Devon, Milton Keynes and Tyneside. The library and archives of the Society, formerly the Fawcett Library, are now part of the Women's Library at the British Library of Political and Economic Science, the main library of the London School of Economics and Political Science. A number of oral history interviews undertaken as part of the Suffrage Interviews project, titled Oral evidence on the suffragette and suffragist movements: the Brian Harrison interviews refer to the Fawcett Society, including interviews with Vera Douie, Kathleen Halpin, and Irene Hilton, and interviews about Ida O'Malley, and Hugh and Alice Franklin.