Emmeline Pankhurst - Wonderful Woman No. 19

Emmeline Pankhurst - 1858-1928
British Political Activist & Leader of the British Suffragette Movement

Isn't worrying that we live in a society where it is likely that girls and young women will have a greater knowledge of The Kardishans than of The Pankhursts?

There are a great many things to say about Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters Christobel, Sylvia and Adela. They were women with a firm goal in mind, fearless in how they would achieve it and never faltering in their determination - these facts alone make them wonderful women to me.

Emmeline Pankhurst was born in urban Moss Sides, Manchester to politically active parents. She was educated in Paris. She was a socialist, a feminist and a humanist, she spent time working as a Poor Law Guardian in Manchester Workhouses, overwhelmed with sadness and anger at the conditions it's inhabitants lived in. She married a barrister (Richard Pankhurst), who was known for his support of women's right to vote. It was he who encouraged her to become involved with the Women's Franchise League, which advocated suffrage for women. After his death, Emmeline set up an all women organisation, the Women's Social and Political Union.

Headed by Emmeline, the Women's Social and Political Union became the front line militant organisation campaigning for Votes for Women. The organisation used the slogan Deeds Not Words, it saw activists carrying out acts of violence, throwing rocks at windows - including that of the Prime Minister, a catalogue of arson attacks, criminal damage and numerous marches demanding that women be given the right to have a say in who governed their country.

She shaped an idea of women for our time; she shook society into a new pattern from which there could be no going back.
Time Magazine

This action saw many members of the Women's Social and Political Union, including Emmeline herself, in prison. Still their dedication to the cause was unyielding, hunger strikes were a common tactic used in prison. Still the British Government refused to allow a woman the right to chose their leader.

Justice and judgment lie often a world apart.
Emmeline Pankhurst

During the First World War, Emmeline felt that the threat from Germany was so great that she called a truce with the government. She even spoke and campaigned to encourage men to join the forces and for women to rally with the war effort. In post-war Britain, the action of The Suffragettes and the work of women during the war could not be ignored.

In 1918, The Representation of the People Act allowed women over the age of 30 the right to vote. This still did not make women equal to men, they had the right to vote from the age of 21, full electoral equality did not come into place until 1928. Even so, the work of Emmeline, her daughters and all other suffragettes was recognised, they achieved their goal and made Britain a fairer, more equal place for women.

As someone who until the age of twelve only knew a female Prime Minister in the United Kingdom, the way life was for women in Britain before the successes of Emmeline and the other suffragettes is unfathomable.



Unthinkably, there are still countries in the world today that fail to allow half of the human race a say in who governs them. In 2011, it was finally announced that women of Saudi Arabia will be given the right to vote (though in a country where women require the permission of a male relative to see a doctor, it remains to be seen if this will be a fair vote), activists there have been campaigning for 20 years on women's right to drive, guardianship and voting issues. Also notably, in The Lebanon though some women can vote, proof of education is required for women but not for men.

All women who have suffered and strived to make the world a fairer place for other women deserve to be included as wonderful women, Emmeline Pankhurst is here as a representation of them all.