From Suffrage to Software Development

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From Suffrage to Software Development

From Suffrage to Software DevelopmentCourage Calls to Courage Everywhere

How Millicent Fawcett’s rallying cry for women’s suffrage speaks to everyone fighting for organisational change

‘Courage calls to courage everywhere, and its voice cannot be denied.’

These words, spoken by Millicent Fawcett in 1920 following the death of fellow suffrage campaigner Emily Davison, echo through time with remarkable relevance. Davison had died seven years earlier when she was struck by the King’s horse at the Epsom Derby in a protest that shocked the nation. Whilst Fawcett was rallying women to demand their fundamental right to vote, her message speaks to anyone who has ever stood up against entrenched systems that resist needed change.

Fawcett’s call resonated because it captured something already stirring in the collective consciousness of her era—a growing recognition that democratic ideals demanded broader participation. Today’s developers find themselves in a fascinating position: whilst they often push against immediate organisational cultures that prioritise speed over sustainability, they’re simultaneously tapping into a broader societal zeitgeist—one increasingly driven by generational values around fairness, meaning, and long-term thinking over short-term extraction.

The Courage to Challenge the Status Quo

Just as the suffragettes faced a political establishment that insisted women didn’t need the vote, developers often encounter organisational inertia that dismisses their concerns about autonomy, technical debt, poor tooling, or unsustainable practices. ‘We’ve always done it this way’ becomes the modern equivalent of ‘women don’t understand politics’. More fundamentally, developers often encounter business attitudes that denigrate the very concepts of autonomy, mastery, and purpose—treating skilled people as interchangeable resources rather than recognising the human need for meaningful, well-crafted work.

Both movements require individuals to risk their standing—suffragettes faced imprisonment and social ostracism, whilst developers risk their careers and livelihoods when they push back against unsustainable practices, challenge poor decisions, or refuse to compromise on quality standards.

Yet in both cases, the courage of one person to speak up creates permission for others to do the same. When a senior developer finally says ‘This pace isn’t sustainable—we’re going to lose good people if we keep pushing these deadlines’ in a sprint retrospective, they’re echoing Fawcett’s call—courage calling to courage.

The Systemic Nature of the Problem

The suffragettes understood that individual voting rights were symptoms of a broader systemic issue about women’s place in society. Similarly, declining engagement, lost motivation, and the absence of joy in work aren’t isolated problems—they’re symptoms of a broader systemic issue about developers’ place in business.

Both movements recognise that meaningful change requires more than individual heroics. It demands shifting entire systems of thought and practice.What is often refer to as collective assumptions and beliefs.

Building Coalitions for Change

Fawcett’s genius wasn’t just in inspiring individual courage, but in building a movement. She understood that isolated voices, however brave, could be dismissed or marginalised. But a chorus of voices demanding change becomes impossible to ignore.

Here, the parallel breaks down somewhat. Smart developers understand this lesson intellectually, yet the industry still lacks the kind of organised movement Fawcett built. The lone engineer railing against poor practices in isolation rarely succeeds, and whilst developers occasionally band together within teams or companies, there’s little of the sustained, cross-organisational coalition that the suffrage movement achieved.

Perhaps this is the missing piece. Individual courage, however admirable, may not be enough. The question becomes: what would a developers’ movement actually look like?

The Long Game of Reform

The suffragette movement spanned decades. Fawcett herself campaigned for over 50 years before seeing women gain the vote. This persistence in the face of setbacks offers profound lessons for developers advocating for organisational change.

Meaningful transformation of development practices doesn’t happen overnight. It requires sustained advocacy, continuous education of stakeholders, and the patience to make incremental progress. Every meeting where developers’ voices are genuinely heard, every deadline that considers human needs, every decision that asks ‘how will this affect our people?’—these are the small victories that accumulate into systemic change.

Moral Authority

The suffragettes derived their power from moral authority—the undeniable rightness of their cause. Developers fighting for better practices have a similar advantage: authority grounded in lived experience. When teams burn out from unsustainable pace, when poor decisions create chaos that developers must navigate daily, when short-term thinking creates long-term suffering—the evidence for change might be compelling, yet organisations often find ways to dismiss, rationalise, or minimise these warning signs.

This aligns with what mathematician William Kingdon Clifford argued in his 1877 essay ‘The Ethics of Belief’—that we have a moral obligation to base our beliefs and actions on sufficient evidence rather than convenient fictions. Both suffragettes documenting systemic disenfranchisement and developers documenting organisational dysfunction aren’t merely being strategic; they’re fulfilling an ethical duty to confront uncomfortable truths about systemic injustices.

The challenge, as with the suffragettes, is making this authority visible to those in power. This requires not just technical expertise, but the communication skills to translate technical consequences into business impact. Note: Don’t throw yourself under a horse!

Courage for Modern Developers

So how do we answer Fawcett’s call in our daily work? Here are some ways developers can channel suffragette-style courage:

Start with documentation. The suffragettes were meticulous record-keepers, documenting injustices and building evidence for their cause. Developers can similarly document the impact of poor practices—the hours lost to debugging, the features delayed by technical debt, the security vulnerabilities introduced by rushed code. God knows there are enough tools to share such documentation and build a portfolio. Google Docs springs to mind.

Find your allies. Identify others who share your concerns. Build coalitions across teams and departments. Remember: courage calls to courage everywhere, but it helps when it’s calling to people who are listening.

Speak in business language. The suffragettes learnt to frame their arguments in terms that resonated with their audience. Developers can learn to translate technical concerns into business impact—lost revenue, increased risk, reduced competitiveness, staff engagement and turnover.

Celebrate incremental progress. Every small improvement, every tool adopted, every collective assumption and belief surfaced is a victory worth acknowledging. The suffragettes celebrated partial victories whilst continuing to push for the whole nine yards.

Stay professional but persistent. Maintain credibility whilst refusing to be silenced. The suffragettes largely mastered this balance, though not without tactical missteps that sometimes undermined their cause. The key was learning from setbacks whilst maintaining unwavering determination.

Embrace what women accomplished. Brogrammers can be dismissive of women in general and their achivements in particular.

The Voice That Cannot Be Denied

When developers across an organisation begin advocating for better, when they support each other’s proposals for improvement, when they consistently demonstrate the value of e.g. quality over speed—they create something powerful. They create a voice that, as Fawcett knew, cannot be denied.

The courage of the suffragettes didn’t just win women the vote; it demonstrated that ordinary people could challenge seemingly immutable systems and win. For developers feeling frustrated by organisational resistance to needed change, this history offers both inspiration and a roadmap.

Every time we advocate for quality, push back against impossible deadlines, or champion users over features, we’re answering Fawcett’s call. We’re demonstrating that courage truly does call to courage everywhere—and in the end, that voice cannot be denied.

The suffragettes transformed society by refusing to accept that ‘this is just how things are’. Software developers have the same opportunity to transform their organisations, one courageous conversation at a time.

Courage calls to courage everywhere. The question is: are you ready to answer?

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