Emmeline and Sylvia

Pankhurst
By Flora and Junru
Who are they?
- Emmeline Pankhurst
- July 15, 1858 – June 14, 1928
- A leading British women's rights activist who led the
movement to win the right for women to vote
- In 1889, Emmeline founded the Women's Franchise League,
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 (WSPU) - an
organisation that gained much notoriety for its activities and
whose members were the first to be christened 'suffragettes'.

● Emmeline was born on 14 July 1858 in Manchester into a family with a

tradition of radical politics. In 1879, she married Richard Pankhurst, a
lawyer and supporter of the women's suffrage movement. He was the
author of the Married Women's Property Acts of 1870 and 1882, which
allowed women to keep earnings or property acquired before and after
marriage.
● In 1889, Emmeline founded the Women's Franchise League, 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 (WSPU) - an organisation that gained much notoriety for its
activities and whose members were the first to be christened
'suffragettes'.
Who are they?
- Sylvia Pankhurst
- May 5, 1882 – September 27, 1960
- Born in Manchester in 1882, Sylvia was the second daughter
of Emmeline Pankhurst.
- An English campaigner for the suffragette
movement, a prominent left communist and later an
activist in the cause of anti-fascism.
- Sylvia herself was an early force in the campaign for women’s
right to vote. She was repeatedly imprisoned for her protests
– more than any other Suffragette.

- May 5, 1882 – September 27, 1960

- Born in Manchester in 1882, Sylvia was the second daughter of
Emmeline Pankhurst.
- An English campaigner for the suffragette movement, a
prominent left communist and later an activist in the cause of
anti-fascism.
- Sylvia herself was an early force in the campaign for women’s
right to vote. She was repeatedly imprisoned for her protests –
more than any other Suffragette.
The Motto for the WSPU
'Deeds not words'

- Formed the Women’s Social and Political Union under the slogan
“Deeds, Not Words,” with the hope of taking more aggressive
action.
- Pankhurst’s organization created a sisterhood of women who used
civil disobedience to great effect.
Militant Activism
- Initially the WSPU's tactics were to cause disruption and some civil
disobedience, such as the 'rush' on Parliament in October 1908 when it
encouraged the public to join them in an attempt to invade the House of
Commons. 60,000 people gathered but the police cordon held fast.
- However the lack of Government action led the WSPU to undertake
more violent acts, including attacks on property and
law-breaking, such as window smashing, arson, which resulted in
imprisonment and hunger strikes.
- British politicians, press and public were astonished by the
demonstrations.
- These tactics attracted a great deal of attention to the campaign for
votes for women.

● The type of activism, social movement was unprecedented, very violent.

● British politicians, press and public were astonished by the
demonstrations, window smashing, arson and hunger strikes of the
suffragettes.
● Particularly significant event: In 1913, WSPU member Emily Davison
was killed when she threw herself under the king's horse at the Derby as
a protest at the government's continued failure to grant women the right
to vote.
● Like many suffragettes, Emmeline was arrested on numerous occasions
over the next few years and went on hunger strike herself, resulting in
violent force-feeding. In 1913, in response to the wave of hunger strikes,
the government passed what became known as the 'Cat and Mouse' Act.
Hunger striking prisoners were released until they grew strong again,
and then re-arrested.
● Initially the WSPU's tactics were to cause disruption and some civil
disobedience, such as the 'rush' on Parliament in October 1908 when it
encouraged the public to join them in an attempt to invade the House of
● Commons. 60,000 people gathered but the police cordon held fast.
● However the lack of Government action led the WSPU to undertake
more violent acts, including attacks on property and law-breaking,
which resulted in imprisonment and hunger strikes.
● These tactics attracted a great deal of attention to the campaign for
votes for women.
● This period of militancy was ended abruptly on the outbreak of war in
1914, when Emmeline turned her energies to supporting the war effort.
In 1918, the Representation of the People Act gave voting rights to
women over 30. Emmeline died on 14 June 1928, shortly after women
were granted equal voting rights with men (at 21).
Key moment: Emily Davison
- In 1913, WSPU member Emily Davison was killed when she threw herself under the king's
horse at the Derby as a protest at the government's continued failure to grant women the right
to vote.

- In 1913, WSPU member Emily Davison was killed when she threw
herself under the king's horse at the Derby as a protest at the
government's continued failure to grant women the right to vote.
WHY Militant Activism
● "I believed, as many women still in England believe, that women could get their way in some mysterious
manner, by purely peaceful methods. We have been so accustomed, we women, to accept one standard for men
and another standard for women, that we have even applied that variation of standard to the injury of our
political welfare" (Pankhurst 1913: 154).

-- Emmeline Pankhurst

● "I want to say here and now that the only justification for violence, the only justification for damage to
property, the only justification for risk to the comfort of other human beings is the fact that you have tried all
other available means and have failed to secure justice, and as a law-abiding person -- and I am by nature a
law-abiding person, as one hating violence, hating disorder -- I want to say that from the moment we began
our militant agitation to this day I have felt absolutely guiltless in this matter... But we have, in addition to this
love of freedom, intolerable grievance to redness" (Pankhurst 1913: 156).

-- Emmeline Pankhurst
Winning the ● Women gained the right to vote
through 2 laws.
right to vote ○ Representation of the People
Act 1918
○ Equal Franchise Act 1928

During 1916-1917, the House of Commons Speaker, James William Lowther,

chaired a conference on electoral reform which recommended limited
women's suffrage.

● Representation of the People Act 1918

○ In 1918 the Representation of the People Act was passed which
allowed women over the age of 30 who met a property
qualification to vote. Although 8.5 million women met this
criteria, it was only about two-thirds of the total population of
women in the UK.
○ The same Act abolished property and other restrictions for men,
and extended the vote to virtually all men over the age of 21.
Additionally, men in the armed forces could vote from the age of
19. The electorate increased from eight to 21 million, but there
was still huge inequality between women and men.
● Equal Franchise Act 1928
○ It was not until the Equal Franchise Act of 1928 that women over
21 were able to vote and women finally achieved the same voting
rights as men. This act increased the number of women eligible
to vote to 15 million.
The Significance of the Pankhursts
- British suffragette movement served to radicalise women in
America, through Alice Paul
- After stumbling across Christabel Pankhurst, Emmeline’s daughter,
speaking about suffrage, Paul joined the movement in Britain. She
returned home radicalized in 1910.
- Like Pankhurst, Paul split from a more staid women’s organization
in the U.S. to form her own National Women’s Party, and used the
tactics of civil disobedience she’d learned from the British.
- There was strong communication between women’s movements of the
period. Women’s suffrage happened at mostly the same time in European
countries, the U.S., New Zealand, and Australia.

● Very violent tactics of the WSPU, such tactics might have

remained largely confined to Britain if Alice Paul, a Quaker
American from New Jersey, hadn’t traveled to study social work in
Birmingham in 1907.
○ After stumbling across Christabel Pankhurst, Emmeline’s
daughter, speaking about suffrage, Paul joined the
movement in Britain. She returned home radicalized in
1910. Like Pankhurst, Paul split from a more staid women’s
organization in the U.S. to form her own National Women’s
Party, and used the tactics of civil disobedience she’d
learned from the British.
● Paul’s borrowing of tactics was consistent with the strong
communication between women’s movements of the period.
● Women’s suffrage happened at mostly the same time in European
countries, the U.S., New Zealand, and Australia.
● The International Women’s Suffrage Alliance, founded in 1904,
offered women from many countries a platform to discuss their
respective movements. But none of the movements were as large,
or quite as similar, as the American and British movements.
Historians say they benefited from favorable association laws and
an active press that didn’t exist in countries like France.
● “These two groups — the British and American — came together
in the international imagination and created an Anglo-American
pattern for suffrage activism. Their courage, or lack of
pragmatism, became very influential and was imitated around the
world.”
 “These two groups — the British and American — came
together in the international imagination and created an
Anglo-American pattern for suffrage activism. Their courage,
or lack of pragmatism, became very influential and was
imitated around the world.”

UCLA: W. E. B. Du Bois
Discussion Questions
1. Do you agree/disagree with Pankhurst's method of Militant Activism? Why or why not? Is
Militant Activism still applicable to nowaday situation? If not, what is the most effective way to
generate social changes?

2. Compare Pankhurst's social activism to MeToo Movement. What are the similarities/differences
between them?

3. Does the following excerpt remind you of any passage in This Bridge Called My Back? What are
some commons themes/idea?
a. "My last word to you this afternoon is, let us unite, we women; let us put aside all class feeling; let us
get rid of everything except the real thing, and we shall do well, and we shall deverse well of those who
come after us." -- Emmeline Pankhurst
Work Cited

Marcus, Jane, ed. Women's Source Library. 1st ed. Vol. 3, Suffrage and the Pankhursts. New York, NY:
Routledge, 2001.

Jorgensen-Earp, Cheryl R., ed. Speeches and Trials of the Militant Suffragettes: The Womens Social and
Political Union, 1903-1918. Danvers, MA: Associated University Presses, 1999.