Emmeline Pankhurst And The Suffragette Movement

Today we are going to explore the life and achievements of a political activist and suffragette. Emmeline Pankhurst spearheaded the movement fighting to give women the right to vote.

Emmeline Pankhurst has gone down in history as the personification of the passionate belief that women deserve the same civil rights as men. She has fought tirelessly for women’s suffrage all her life and fought to eradicate poverty and ignorance.

Time magazine considers her one of the 100 most important people of the 20th century. She was a charismatic leader and a gifted speaker. She inspired many people to join her in the fight.

So how exactly did her struggle go? How has she influenced future generations? How has she managed to change her present, which in turn has changed our future? In this article, we invite you to discover a little more about the admirable Emmeline Pankhurst.

Her early life

Emmeline Pankhurst was born on July 15, 1858. Her father, Robert Goulden, came from a family of political activists. Emmeline’s mother, Sophia Crane, was also a political activist from the Isle of Man. When Emmeline was a little girl, both her parents supported the movement to abolish slavery.

When she was twenty years old, she met a lawyer and political activist who championed women’s suffrage and education reform. She fell in love with him. His name was Richard Pankhurst, and he was 24 years older than Emmeline. They married and had five children.

The suffragettes

The suffragette organizations of the time began to give in to the idea of ​​allowing only single women and widows to vote. However, Emmeline and her husband rejected that proposal completely and started a new group, the Women’s Franchise League .

This new movement advocated the right of all women to vote without exception and with equal rights to divorce and inheritance. Shortly after its founding, the movement radicalized to the extreme left and many of its members dropped out.

The Political Career of Emmeline Pankhurst

After a while in London, Emmeline Pankhurst went back to Manchester. There she began to get involved in political activism on her own.

Emmeline eventually joined the Independent Workers’ Party after being rejected several times for being a woman. She then became involved in the distribution of food through the Committee for Relief to the Unemployed.

The state of poverty and helplessness she saw touched her deeply. The experience inspired her to join the workers’ protection reform movement. After several incidents, Richard fell ill and died. He left Emmeline in great debt and in charge of their entire family.

Pankhurst landed a job at City Hall and began raising awareness of the social conditions of women in the region. At the same time, her now grown daughters had also become involved with the suffragettes.

Actions rather than words

Disappointed with political parties and suffragette organizations achieving nothing, she decided to leave all groups. She then founded the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU). This union was only open to women and its motto was “Do not be words, but deeds.”

However, it was not long before the WSPU radicalized and started using violent tactics. Their goal was to get attention and revenge. They popularized window breaking, attacks on private property and prison hunger strikes.

The men of the party and the authorities attacked her and others more than once. The government has also imprisoned her several times. During this time she had sold her house in Manchester and traveled through England and the United States to give conferences about her work.

Emmeline Pankhurst and women’s suffrage

At the start of World War I, Emmeline negotiated with Parliament for the release of the women of the WSPU. In return, she promised a truce and that she would not do anything more violent. The agreement also included women’s support of the organization, which supported Britain’s fight against Germany.

This agreement created a conflict within the movement. It was so controversial, it created an insurmountable division between Emmeline and one of her daughters. After the war, she became disillusioned with left-wing politics and even joined the conservative party.

The Conservative Party was the most popular political party at the time. Pankhurst wanted to use that energy for the suffragette movement. Her years of dedication and hard work paid off just weeks before she passed away at the age of 69. Pankhurst lived to see women win the right to vote.

The Violence of the Suffragette Movement

Pankhurst was a controversial, energetic and radical activist. She attacked some political ideas and promoted others, never losing sight of her goal. People hated her and loved her just as much. Pankhurst was an inspiration to women from all walks of life.

Finally, we can say that Emmeline Pankhurst represented the more radical side of women’s suffrage. Not everyone in the movement supported her violent methods, but these traditionally “masculine” strategies were ultimately the things that drew attention to the woman’s cause.

Pankhurst dared to speak the only language the patriarchal system seemed to understand: violent protest. Whether or not you agree with her tactics, one thing is certain: the system listened and changed.