Today marks the anniversary of the death of Emmeline Pankhurst, British political activist, feminist, and leader of the suffragette movement who played a crucial role in winning the vote for women.
Emmeline Goulden was born to radical, feminist parents in Manchester in 1858. Despite being academically gifted, she did not receive the same education as her brothers. Although her parents supported women's suffrage and the general advancement of women in society, they believed that the most important part of a girl's education were the skills needed to make a home for her family. At age 15, Pankhurst left home to attend the École Normale Supérieure in Paris. In 1878 she married Richard Pankhurst, a barrister 24 years her senior who supported women's right to vote and Emmeline's political work outside the home. Over the next ten years, Pankhurst had five children while remaining active in political organizations, including the Women's Suffrage Society.
In 1889, the Pankhursts founded the Women's Franchise League, which advocated suffrage for all women—married and unmarried. In 1893, Pankhurst began to distinguish herself as an activist in her own right. She became active with the Women's Liberal Federation (WLF), an auxiliary of the Liberal Party, but quickly grew disenchanted with the group's moderate positions. She resigned from the WLF and applied to join the Independent Labour Party (ILP). She was refused admission to the local branch because of her gender, but eventually joined the national ILP. One of her first activities with the ILP was distributing food to the poor through the Committee for the Relief of the Unemployed. She also worked as a Poor Law Guardian, exposing her to the harsh conditions in Manchester workhouses. She campaigned for improvements to the conditions, becoming a successful voice of reform on the Board of Guardians.
In 1889, after the death of her husband, Pankhurst resigned from the Board of Guardians and took a paid position as Registrar of Births and Deaths in Chorlton. This position and her elected position on the Manchester School Board served to reinforce her political convictions regarding women's suffrage. The Pankhurst children also started becoming more active in the women's suffrage movement. In 1903, Pankhurst founded the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), a suffrage organization whose slogan was "deeds, not words."
Under Pankhurst’s leadership, the suffrage movement adopted a distinctly radical strategy. English women burned down the country homes of the rich. They harassed businessmen on the street. They placed bricks in their handbags. They destroyed golf courses, poured acid in mailboxes, and cut the telegraph wires of stock brokers. In one memorable event, they enlisted supportive male dock workers to charge the Prime Minister’s office, wreaking havoc along London’s Downing Street.
“In our civil war people have suffered,” she declared, “but you cannot make omelettes without breaking eggs; you cannot have civil war without damage to something. It does not matter to the practical suffragist whether she alienates sympathy that was never of any use to her.”
The press, public and politicians were shocked by such combative, revolutionary demonstrations by women.The group became infamous for its tactics of smashing windows and assaulting police officers, leading to repeated prison sentences for its members, including Pankhurst and her daughters. In prison, the women staged hunger strikes and the authorities' policy of force-feeding garnered significant sympathy for the women. After Pankhurst's oldest daughter, Christabel, took over the WSPU in 1912, arson became a common tactic of the organization, drawing criticism against the Pankhurst family from more moderate organizations. In 1913, several prominent members left or were forced out of the WSPU, including Pankhurst's other daughters, Adela and Sylvia.
When she returned to England after her 1913 American fundraising tour, Pankhurst fully expected to be imprisoned for an earlier conviction, and she was. In June, 1913, at the most important race of the year, the Derby,. ran out on the course and attempted to grab the bridle of Anmer, a horse owned by King George V. The horse hit Emily and the impact fractured her skull and she died without regaining consciousness. Although many suffragettes endangered their lives by hunger strikes, Emily Davison was the only one who deliberately risked death. However, her actions did not have the desired impact on the general public. They appeared to be more concerned with the health of the horse and jockey and Davison was condemned as a mentally ill fanatic. Emily was a WSPU member.
https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.com/2017/06/emily-wilding-davison-11101872-861913.html
With the outbreak of World War I the WSPU agreed to to halt all militant suffrage activities, being among the first to surrender their principles to the altar of war and patriotism, suspending its campaign and aid the war effort, they encouraged men to fight and women to help with industrial production in their absence which redeemed it somewhat in the eyes of some but drew consternation from others..Emmeline's patriotic view of the war was reflected in the paper's new slogan: "For King, For Country, for Freedom'. The newspaper attacked politicians and military leaders for not doing enough to win the war, All suffragettes were released from prison. In 1917, Pankhurst dissolved the WSPU and formed the Women's Party, a political party dedicated to promoting women's equality in public life. In 1918, after the Representation of the People Act granted votes to all men over the age of 21 and married women over the age of 30, the party stood Christabel as a candidate in the 1918 general election. She won 47.8% of the vote in her constituency, losing by only 775 votes to her Labour Party opponent.
But after the success of 1918, Emmeline retreated from public life in Britain. She spent much of the early 1920s lecturing in Canada and the United States. She returned to Britain in 1926 and surprisingly to some, she joined the Conservative Party and was selected as a candidate for Whitechapel and St George in 1928. However, her health had been impacted by her frequent incarcerations and hunger strikes and she died that same year at the age of 69. Just eighteen days later, Parliament passed the Representation of the People (equal franchise) Act 1928, giving the vote to all women over the age of twenty-one regardless of property ownership. Finally, women had equality with men in terms of voting. It was a shame that Emmeline, after devoting her life and sacrificing her health to the cause, never got to see her dream fully realised.
Pankhurst is considered to be one of the most influential women in British history. After her death, the New York Herald Tribune called her "the most remarkable political and social agitator of the twentieth century and the supreme protagonist of the campaign for the electoral enfranchisement of women".
The legacy of the Suffragettes lives on though in people who daily practice deeds not words, who participate in direct action, constantly calling out for more radical change. On the anniversary of Emmeline's death their are still many being force fed, in prisons across the world, many people still fighting , still hungry for freedom.
Today also marks the anniversary of this blog,11 years old, I thank all those who have supported it , left a comment or two, shown some encouragement, you know who you are. Keep fighting for what you believe in, All the best heddwch / /peace.
