Emmeline Pankhurst
And now we come to the doyen of the feminist movement, the redoubtable and much feared Emmeline Pankhurst, nee Goulden. Born in 1858 in Manchester, she was raised by parents committed to reform and radical politics. In 1879 she married lawyer Richard Pankhurst, a fellow left-leaning advocate of women’s suffrage. He was the author of the Married Women’s Property Acts of 1870 and 1882, which, for the first time, allowed women to keep earnings or property acquired before and after marriage.
It was after his death in 1898 that Emmeline became active in the suffragist movement, founding the Women’s Franchise League, the agenda of which was to secure voting rights for married women. Soon, however, she was engaged in founding the much more radical Women’s Social and Political Union. This organization would gain considerable notoriety for it militant and aggressive methods, and soon enough its members were known under notorious moniker ‘Suffragettes’.
Emmeline’s daughters Christabel and Sylvia were both as equally active as their mother, and the British political establishment and general public were astonished, and appalled at the methods the movement employed. Loud demonstrations, window smashing, arson, hunger strikes and women chaining themselves to the gates of parliament. Nothing like it had ever been seen before. In 1913, Women’s Social and Political Union member Emily Davison was killed when she threw herself under the king’s horse at the Derby, as a protest at the government’s continued refusal to consider granting voting rights to women.
Emmeline Pankhurst herself was arrested and went on hunger strike numerous times, and was on occasions force-fed. In response to this, and similar actions all over Britain, the government introduced what was known as the ‘Cat and Mouse’ Act, whereby women were released until they regained their strength, and then rearrested.
These militant actions were interrupted by WWI, at which point all loyal citizens of the Empire directed their attention to the war effort. But the message had been delivered, and in 1918, at the end of the war, the Representation of the People Act gave voting rights to women over 30. In June 1928, soon after women were granted equal voting rights with men.
In 1999, the Times of London named Pankhurst one of the 100 Most Important People of the 20th Century, stating ‘she shaped an idea of women for our time; she shook society into a new pattern from which there could be no going back.’
Where did we find this stuff? Here are our sources:
“Olive Schreiner, South African writer”. Encyclopedia Britannica, March 2017
“Olive Schreiner”. South African History, March 2018
“Elizabeth Fry, Prison reformer.” Christianity Today
“Lucretia Mott.” History.com Staff, History.com, 2009
“Elizabeth Cady Stanton.” History.com Staff, History.com, 2009
“Susan B Anthony.” History.com Staff, History.com, 2010
“Florence Nightingale.” History.com Staff, History.com, 2009