 In November 1908 , Macmillan appeared in London to argue , as a university graduate , for her right to vote for Scottish University seats . During her speech , the buildings of Parliament were made to suspend the temporary arrangements put in place to prevent women from entering — such arrangements had been instituted after the first militant suffrage agitations . Macmillan was the first woman to argue a case before the bar of the House of Lords . She was backed by her contemporary , Frances Simson , one of the first eight female graduates of Edinburgh . Given audience late in the day , Macmillan spoke for three quarters of an hour . Press reports of the appearance described her as a " modern Portia . " In Scotland , Glasgow 's The Herald reported that she began nervously but warmed to her subject and " argued law in an admirable speaking voice " . Two days later she continued to plead her case , this time in " complete self @-@ possession " , wearing a dark red outfit and hat trimmed with ermine furs . Like other suffragists in Britain and the United States , she based her case on the words person and persons in the voting statutes , arguing that such unspecific words were no basis for the exclusion of one entire sex from voting . The court upheld both lower courts ' decisions that the word persons did not include women when referring to privileges granted by the state . She lost the case , but The New York Times reported that she responded to the decision against her with the words " We 'll live to fight another day " . In Wellington , New Zealand , the Evening Post wrote a less strident account , noting that Macmillan was cheerful in defeat . After the court adjourned , she said to a reporter from the London Daily Chronicle , " I don 't suppose that there is anything more to be done just now , but we shall live to fight another day . " No matter her exact words , her time at the House of Lords attracted worldwide publicity which proved valuable to the women 's cause . 
