NUWSS

The National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS) was a British political organization founded in 1897 by Millicent Garrett Fawcett and a network of women’s suffrage societies. It acted as the primary umbrella for moderate, constitutional suffrage activism in the United Kingdom, aiming to secure women’s right to vote through legal and peaceful means.

As a federation, the NUWSS coordinated actions among member societies while allowing them autonomy. Its methods included lobbying Parliament, organizing petitions, public meetings, education campaigns, and targeted political pressure. The group promoted non-violent tactics and generally opposed the more militant strategies adopted by the rival Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), led by Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst.

Key figures during its prominence included Millicent Fawcett, who served as president, along with other suffrage advocates who supported gradual reform and parliamentary persuasion. The NUWSS played a central role in sustaining a broad-based, respectable suffrage campaign and helped mobilize public opinion in favor of reform.

In the years surrounding World War I, the NUWSS supported reforms that culminated in the Representation of the People Act 1918, which granted limited suffrage to some women, and the subsequent widening of the franchise. In 1920, the organization renamed itself the National Union of Societies for Equal Citizenship (NUSEC) to reflect a shift toward full citizenship rights for women; it eventually faded as a distinct entity, with many affiliated groups continuing their work within other feminist movements.

The NUWSS’s legacy lies in its emphasis on constitutional, inclusive organizing and its role in sustaining the push for women’s political equality in the United Kingdom.