Emmeline Pankhurst: Ground Breaking Women's Suffrage

Emmeline Pankhurst: Ground Breaking Women’s Suffragist

“We are here, not because we are law breakers; we are here in our efforts to become law maker.”(qtd. in Brainyquote) This quote was said by the powerful and outspoken Emmeline Pankhurst. It is well known that Emmeline Pankhurst fought for women’s suffrage starting during her childhood, through her career as a revolutionist, and up until her death.

Emmeline Pankhurst developed her love for radical politics throughout her childhood and young adult life. Emmeline was born in Moss Side, Manchester in 1858. Her family consisted mostly of radical politicians who helped shape her strong political views.( Tejvan R.Pettinger) Emmeline Pankhurst attended her first women’s suffrage meeting with her mother at the ripe age of 14 years old.( Byers, Paula K) Many scholars agree that this meeting is what sparked Emmeline’s initial interest in the fight for women’s suffrage. According to Mikey Smith, Emmeline received the majority of her education in 1873 from École Normale Suprérienre, a well-respected finishing school. This formal education helped her develop the critical skills she needed to become a

successful revolutionist. After her schooling, Emmeline married Dr. Richard Pankhurst, a liberal lawyer who supported many radical causes, including his wife’s, women’s suffrage. During her young adult life, not long after her marriage, Emmeline was briefly in the Fabian Society, Independent Labor Party, and was paid a wage to record births and deaths. (Byers, Paula K) She picked up a lot of experience and knowledge while being part of these two political circles and working the small registry job. As you can see, Emmeline Pankhurst grew up surrounded by radical politics and experiences shared in part by her family, friends, and teachers which molded her into the powerful revolutionist she became.
Emmeline Pankhurst had many successes and very few failures throughout her finding her place in a career as an empowered women’s suffragist. The first move Emmeline Pankhurst made toward getting women’s suffrage was creating The Women’s Franchise League. Through this organization, women earned the right to vote in the local offices near Emmeline. After this big success Emmeline held many local office positions which she learned a lot from. (Jone Johnson Lewis) In 1894 Emmeline was elected as the Poor Law Guardian. Through this position, Emmeline saw, first hand, the awful conditions the poor were exposed to. This newly found knowledge is another reason why Emmeline Pankhurst became so set on helping women get the right to vote; she wanted to help the poor women that she worked with daily, become heard. ( Tejvan R.Pettinger) In the same year Emmeline won the vote for women in local offices. The hardest obstacle Emmeline faced was the loss of her beloved husband in 1898. His death was the major turning point in not only her race toward women’s suffrage but her life as a whole. Preceding his death, Emmeline threw herself into her organizations, specifically The Women’s Franchise League, which unfortunately was losing supporters, and later her newest organization The Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU). Emmeline formed this organization in 1903 with the hopes of creating an almost militant organization that would fight to be heard. The organization slowly filled with passionate women who were very dedicated to women’s suffrage. For its time, the WSPU passes all other rebellious organizations. (Byers, Paula K) This was another great success for Emmeline. The WSPU was a very violent organization that smashed windows, cut phone lines, held demonstrations, and sent letter bombs to draw attention to their cause. (Mikey Smith) These forceful actions surprised many including the government and the press. The result of many of these actions was arrest for quite a few of the organization members. In response to questions asking why Emmeline Pankhurst’s organization broke the law so frequently was, “The condition of our sex is so deplorable that it is our duty to break the law in order to call attention to the reasons why we do.” (qtd. in biographyonline) Emmeline Pankhurst’s daughters were major contributors to the WSPU. Sylvia, one of Emmeline’s daughters, was an artist for the WSPU and designed many of its posters. Her oldest daughter Christabel was one of the first members of the organization to get imprisoned. Her trial sparked a lot of interest for the WSPU. The first time Emmeline herself got arrested was in 1910 when she led a violent march on Parliament with 300 other women. It was reported that officers at the march punched the women and pulled on their breasts. Immediately after the march Emmeline and other members of the WSPU went out and shattered windows of the politicians who stood in the way of their right to vote. This was the crime Emmeline was charged with. She was taken to Holloway prison where she led hunger strikes. As a result of the hunger strikes, a new act was brought into action. It was called the Cat and Mouse at and essentially it said that prisoners that were on hunger strike were allowed to leave and recover then would be rearrested. Emmeline was one of many who were released in accordance to this act. (Mikey Smith) In 1914 in the mist of Emmeline Pankhurst’s suffrage movement, a war broke out. Right after the declaration of the war, Emmeline made the bold decision to call off the violent movement of the WSPU temporarily. (Tejvan R.Pettinger) She said “What’s the use of fighting for the right to vote if we have not got a country to vote in?” (qtd. in Biographyonline) Emmeline even went as far as changing the name of the WSPU’s newspaper to Britannia from Suffragette. (Mikey Smith) As a truce all of the prisoners that belonged to the WSPU were released. (Tejvan R.Pettinger) At the end of the war the Representation of the People act of 1918 was introduced. This act gave suffrage to all men over the age of 21 and to women over 30 who owned property or were voting under a university electorate. Even though the men still had the majority of the votes after this act, it was still a very big accomplishment for Emmeline Pankhurst and her prized organization. It is evident that Emmeline Pankhurst was very dedicated, tireless, and never gave up fighting through her career as a women’s suffragist in a time where women had little to no say.
The people who knew Emmeline would likely agree she had many strengths and very few flaws.

She was always determined, knew what she wanted, and fought relentlessly. Emmeline had a lot of passion for what she did. This passion gave her the drive she needed to fight day after day. On the other hand Emmeline forgot about her family and at times was very violent. While being absorbed in her job as a suffragist her family fell apart in front of her. Besides Sylvia and Christabel, her other children started to disagree with their mother and her violence. Her and her organizations are reminisced as being violent and militant. Not everyone agreed with this course of action including a large portion of her family. Although Emmeline Pankhurst had some flaws, they were overpowered with her strengths that shone

through.
Toward the end of her career as a revolutionist and life, Emmeline Pankhurst still remained involved in politics and still inspired many women to fight for themselves. In 1926 Emmeline joined the conservative party. (Tejvan R.Pettinger) Just two years later Emmeline was chosen as a candidate for parliament. She served on parliament for a short period of time before falling ill and having to drop out. (Jone Johnson Lewis) Both being a part of the Conservative Party and serving on Parliament shocked many because up until then she was always known to have very liberal ideals. Today historians theorize that she became part of the party and served on parliament because either she started to become concerned with communism and how fast it was spreading or she was still trying to get equal voting rights. (Mikey Smith, Tejvan R.Pettinger) Emmeline Pankhurst dies in a nursing home on June 14th, 1928. She was only 69 years of age. Only 18 days after her death the Representation of the People Act of 1928 was passed. This act gave equal voting rights to all men and women over the age of 21. (Mikey Smith) Emmeline is widely known for her valor and relentlessness but still today some people dispute if she helped or hurt the Women’s Suffrage movement. (Tejvan R.Pettinger) Although this is true, many can concur that she inspire and affected the lives of billions of people from her time to ours. She taught these women to stand up for what they believe in and to not back down. As a result of this determination Emmeline was named one of Time Magazine’s 100 most important people of the 21st century. (Mikey Smith) Although Emmeline was getting older and at the end of her career, she always persevered and remained involved up until her death.