Emmeline Pankhurst: Women's Rights Activist

Emmeline Pankhurst was born in Moss Side, Manchester. She was born to Robert and Sophia Goulden, and she was the eldest daughter of ten children(Painter). Her birth records say she was born on July 15, 1858, but she claims to be born on July 14, Bastille Day. To many people, Bastille Day represents equality and resonance, which is what she wanted to achieve with the women’s rights movement(Smith). Her ideas were most likely influenced by her parents, who had radical political beliefs. It is believed that Emmeline went to her first suffrage meeting at the age of eight(Painter). She was sent to a finishing school in France called Ecole Normale Superieuve. In the finishing school, she was taught usual subjects for girls, and was also taught subjects taught only taught for men, but her instructors believed that

girls should have education. Emmeline graduated in 1873 at the age of nineteen(Smith). Her exact religion is unknown. Because Emmeline Pankhurst was exposed to radical politics at a young age, the ideas of those politics influenced her for the rest of her life.
In 1874, she married Richard Pankhurst, a lawyer who had radical beliefs on women’s rights. He was twenty-four years older than her, and he influenced her(Smith).Together they had five children: Christabel, Slyvia, Francis Henry, Adela, and Henry Francis. They formed the Women’s Franchise League, but this party was seen to be out of touch with society. The exact financial worth of the Pankhursts is unknown. After Richard died in 1898, she became hinvolved in women’s rights, and she became a Poor Law Guardian. As a Poor Law Guardian, she visited workhouses and other places known for their shocking poverty. Emmeline stated the following, “I thought I had been a suffragist before I became a Poor Law Guardian, but now I began to think about the vote in women’s hands not only as a right but as a desperate necessity.” These visits reinstated the need for women’s rights to Emmeline(Pettinger). In 1903, Christabel, her daughter, helped persuade Emmeline to start the Women’s Social and Political Union, which is more commonly known as the WPSU. The WPSU was losing the media’s interest, so they became more militant. Some of their militant acts included: tying to railings, smashing windows, demonstrations, hunger and thirst strikes, breaking windows, cutting telephone lines, and the attacking of the home of Chancellor David Lloyd George(Pettinger). In 1913, when Christabel Pankhurst took over the WPSU, it became even more militant, which caused people to leave the group(“Emmeline Pankhurst”).
The WPSU had to face the consequences of their militant acts.

The consequences usually meant imprisonment. The imprisonment led to hunger and thirst strikes led by Emmeline Pankhurst. Pankhurst was arrested at least six times during 1908 and 1912(“Emmeline Pankhurst”). She was finally sent to Holloway Prison, which led to her protesting the conditions by going on hunger and thirst strikes. Eventually the government got irritated at her hunger and thirst strikes, which resorted in the government ordering inmates who resisted the food and water to be force fed. This meant women had to be restrained while a rubber tube was forced down their noses or throats, and a liquid was poured into it to give them nutrients. Many women, including Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters, were put through this torturous treatment(Painter). When WWI came in 1914, Emmeline called a truce between the government and the WPSU, the government then proceeded to release suffragettes from prison(Smith). Emmeline then proceeded to encourage women to take up men’s jobs and jobs in factories. In support of the war, they were no longer a militant group, but they had become a patriotic

group.
Because Emmeline Pankhurst was exposed to radical politics at a young age, the ideas influenced her for the rest of her life.When Emmeline got older, she moved to Canada from 1919 to 1926. In 1928, she shocked many when it was announced she would be running in the Conservative Party. She died on June 14, 1928 in Hapmstead. Eighteen days after her death it was announced that women could vote(Smith). In conclusion, I would define Emmeline as a determined leader, but I don’t think she was the most positive role model, because of her ways of getting equality.