Emmeline Pankhurst was a key member of the British Suffragette Movement, which fought for the right of women to vote in public elections. Emmeline’s husband Richard and daughters Christabel, Sylvia and Adela were also strong supporters of women’s rights.
Emmeline founded the Women’s Franchise League in 1889, which fought to allow married women to vote in local elections. In October 1903, she helped found the more militant Women’s Social and Political Union or WSPU. Among the WSPU’s tactics were demonstrations, window smashing, arson and hunger strikes. The women activists were called ‘suffragettes’.
They shook up the British politicians, press and the public with their violent techniques and were arrested in large numbers. In prison these women, including Emmeline, went on hunger strikes and were sometimes force-fed through nasal tubes to prevent death by starvation.
When World War I broke out in 1914, Emmeline channelled her resources to supporting the war effort. In 1918, the Representation of the People Act gave voting rights to women over 30.
After the war, Emmeline was chosen as the Conservative candidate for an East London seat, but her health failed before she could be elected. She died on June 14, 1928 in London, a few weeks after the Representation of the People Act establishing voting equality for men and women was passed.
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