Emmeline Pankhurst

Emmeline Pankhurst (born Emiline Goulden; 15 July 1858 – 14 June 1928) was an British political activist. She is best remembered for organizing the UK suffragette movement and helping women win the right to vote. In 1999, Time named her as one of the 100 Most Important People of the 20th Century, stating that she shaped an idea of women for our time and shook society into a new pattern from which there could be no going back. She was widely criticised for her militant tactics, and historians disagree about their effectiveness, but her work is recognised as a crucial element in achieving womens suffrage in the United Kingdom.Born in the Moss Side district of Manchester to politically active parents, Pankhurst was introduced at the age of 14 to the womens suffrage movement. She founded and became involved with the Womens Franchise League, which advocated suffrage for both married and unmarried women. When that organisation broke apart, she tried to join the left-leaning Independent Labour Party through her friendship with socialist Keir Hardie but was initially refused membership by the local branch on account of her sex. While working as a Poor Law Guardian, she was shocked at the harsh conditions she encountered in Manchesters workhouses.In 1903, Pankhurst founded the Womens Social and Political Union (WSPU), an all-women suffrage advocacy organisation dedicated to deeds, not words. The group identified as independent from – and often in opposition to – political parties. It became known for physical confrontations: its members smashed windows and assaulted police officers. Pankhurst, her daughters, and other WSPU activists received repeated prison sentences, where they staged hunger strikes to secure better conditions, and were often force-fed. As Pankhursts eldest daughter Christabel took leadership of the WSPU, antagonism between the group and the government grew. Eventually the group adopted arson as a tactic, and more moderate organisations spoke out against the Pankhurst family. In 1913 several prominent individuals left the WSPU, among them Pankhursts younger daughters, Adela and Sylvia. Emmeline was so furious that she gave [Adela] a ticket, £20, and a letter of introduction to a suffragette in Australia, and firmly insisted that she emigrate. Adela complied and the family rift was never healed. Sylvia became a socialist.With the advent of the First World War, Emmeline and Christabel called an immediate halt to militant suffrage terrorism in support of the British governments stand against the German Peril. They urged women to aid industrial production and encouraged young men to fight, becoming prominent figures in the white feather movement. In 1918, the Representation of the People Act granted votes to all men over the age of 21 and women over the age of 30. This discrepancy was intended to ensure that men did not become minority voters as a consequence of the huge number of deaths suffered during the First World War.She transformed the WSPU machinery into the Womens Party, which was dedicated to promoting womens equality in public life. In her later years, she became concerned with what she perceived as the menace posed by Bolshevism and joined the Conservative Party. She was selected as the Conservative candidate for Whitechapel and St Georges in 1927. She died on 14 June 1928, only weeks before the Conservative governments Representation of the People Act (1928) extended the vote to all women over 21 years of age on 2 July 1928. She was commemorated two years later with a statue in Victoria Tower Gardens, next to the Houses of Parliament.

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