Pankhurst, Emmeline Goulden: Biography and Much More from Answers.com
- ️Wed Jul 01 2015
Emmeline Pankhurst
The English reformer Emmeline Pankhurst (1858-1928) led the movement for women's suffrage in Great Britain, in the process developing agitational tactics still controversial and consequential.
Emmeline Pankhurst was born Emmeline Goulden in Manchester on July 4, 1858. At the age of 14 she accompanied her mother to a women's suffrage meeting. The next few years Emmeline spent in Paris attending school. After her return she married Richard Pankhurst, a barrister and an activist in radical causes, especially in women's suffrage. He died in 1898, leaving her with four children, including daughters Christabel (1880-1958) and Sylvia (1882-1960).
Pankhurst had briefly joined the Fabian Society and then had joined the Independent Labour party. She had held local offices as a Poor Law guardian, as a school board member, and as a paid registrar of births and deaths. In all these experiences she had observed the inferior position of women and their legal and social oppression by men. She concluded that only political rights for women would emancipate women and reform society at large.
In 1903 Pankhurst and Christabel formed the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU). From its founding, the WSPU held certain policies: Its membership was exclusively female; it was independent of all political parties; it concentrated exclusively on the suffrage issue; and it distrusted all promises and demanded immediate parliamentary action. Another policy, developed in the next few years, was tactical militancy in harassing the Liberals, the political party with the greatest number of sympathizers and after 1905 the party in power, in order to force it to adopt women's suffrage as a party measure.
Pankhurst soon discovered that processions to the Houses of Parliament and hecklings and disruptions of election meetings produced police countermeasures and thus newspaper publicity favorable to her cause. The history of the movement recorded her mounting frustration with Prime Minister Herbert H. Asquith's personal resistance to votes for women and his consequent delaying tactics in Parliament.
In 1908 Pankhurst declared that the suffragettes would either convert the ministry by force or see "the Government themselves destroyed." Soon the WSPU surpassed all other dissident movements, if not in rhetoric, in its violence and in its disruption of public life. The suffragettes organized campaigns of window smashing in central London, burned letters in postboxes, defaced paintings, and burned unoccupied buildings. Pankhurst called this escalation "guerrilla warfare" against property "to make England and every department of English life insecure and unsafe." She stopped short only of endangering human life.
The ministry responded with arrests and imprisonment, of Pankhurst herself for the first time in 1908. The women prisoners then began hunger strikes, which the officials met with brutal forms of forced feeding. In 1913 the "Cat and Mouse" Act allowed the release of fasting prisoners and their rearrest when they had recovered; under these terms Mrs. Pankhurst served only 30 days (of a 3-year sentence) during a calendar year.
Historians have asserted that by 1914 violence had become an end in itself for the WSPU, although Pankhurst always declared it temporary and historically and politically validated. After 1912 Christabel Pankhurst, who had taken sanctuary in Paris, directed the strategy. Yet the movement's objectives, as distinct from its tactics, had become less radical. It accepted a "Conciliation Bill, " which excluded working-class women from the vote and which opposed as impractical the introduction of genuinely universal suffrage. Finally, after Sylvia Pankhurst's expulsion from the movement, on grounds of her socialism and organizational activity among the lower classes, the ministry made her a formal promise of government support. Because of the outbreak of World War I, the pledge could not be redeemed until 1918, when most women over 30 years of age were enfranchised. Later, the Representation Act of 1928 gave women the vote on the same basis as men. Emmeline Pankhurst, who had played little part in the movement after 1914, died on June 14, 1928.
Further Reading
Emmeline Pankhurst's autobiographical account, My Own Story (1914), must be read with special caution because of its omissions and rationalizations. Two primary accounts were written by her daughter, Estelle Sylvia Pankhurst: The Suffragette Movement (1931) and The Life of Emmeline Pankhurst (1935). Another primary account is in Millicent G. Fawcett, The Women's Victory and After (1914). A brilliant and lively treatment of the Pankhursts by means of social and psychological analysis is in George Dangerfield, The Strange Death of Liberal England (1935). Robert C.K. Ensor, England, 1870-1914 (1936), is a general history of the period which includes a critical account of the movement.
British History: Emmeline Pankhurst
Pankhurst, Emmeline (1858-1928). Suffragette leader. A superb platform speaker with a fine physical presence, Emmeline Pankhurst came to symbolize the women's struggle for the parliamentary vote.
Emmeline acquired radical views from her father Robert Goulden, a Manchester cotton-manufacturer. In 1874 she married the Liberal lawyer Dr Richard Pankhurst and followed him into the Fabian Society and the Independent Labour Party. Following Richard's death in 1898 Emmeline fell under the influence of her eldest daughter Christabel, who became increasingly impatient with the failure of the ILP to give priority to women's suffrage. As a result they established the Women's Social and Political Union in 1903, moved to London, and adopted militant tactics. She decided to vary her methods by attacking property: ‘the argument of the broken pane of glass is the most valuable argument in modern politics.’ After a spate of window-breaking in the West End in March 1912 she was charged with conspiracy to commit damage and awarded a nine-month sentence. In February 1913 she accepted responsibility for a bomb which exploded at Lloyd George's house at Walton Heath and was sentenced to three years' penal servitude. Under the terms of the ‘Cat and Mouse Act’ she was rearrested twelve times.
Columbia Encyclopedia: Pankhurst, Emmeline Goulden
(ĕm'əlīn', –lēn', gūl'dən, păngk'hûrst) , 1858–1928, British woman suffragist. Disappointed in the disinterest in women's suffrage shown by the Liberal party, the Fabian Society, and the Independent Labour party, she founded (1903) her own movement, the Women's Social and Political Union. Using spectacular militant means to further their cause, the members of her movement were frequently arrested. Arrested and imprisoned herself in 1912, she went on a hunger strike and soon gained release. Arrested again in 1913 she was released once more after a hunger strike, but imprisoned upon her recovery according to the provisions of the newly passed “Cat and Mouse” Act (Prisoners, Temporary Discharge for Health, Act; 1913). This pattern repeated itself 12 times in the following 12 months. On the outbreak of World War I, however, the government granted her a full release, and she turned her powers of leadership from the suffragist movement to the war effort. After the war she moved to Canada and her work for women's rights virtually ceased. Upon her return to England in 1926 she was a nationally revered figure. She died while standing for election to Parliament as a Conservative candidate two years later. A statue in her memory stands at Westminster.
Bibliography
See her autobiography, My Own Story (1914, repr. 1970), and the biography by her daughter E. S. Pankhurst (1936, repr. 1969); R. Strachey, The Cause (1928, repr. 1969); D. Barker, Prominent Edwardians (1969).
Her oldest daughter, Christabel Pankhurst, 1880–1958, was also a suffragist. Educated for the bar but refused admittance because of her sex, she later became an evangelist. In 1936 she was made a Dame of the British Empire. The youngest daughter, Sylvia Pankhurst, 1882–1960, created a sensation by opposing marriage as an institution and defending unmarried mothers; she carried her theories into practice by bearing an illegitimate son in 1927. She later was active in the cause of Ethiopian independence. Her writings include The Suffragette Movement (1931) and Ethiopia, A Cultural History (1935), in addition to the biography of her mother (1936).
Bibliography
See B. Castle Sylvia and Christabel Pankhurst (1987).
Wikipedia: Emmeline Pankhurst
Emmeline Pankhurst (14 July, 1858 – 14 June, 1928) was one of the founders of the British suffragette movement. (the WSPU women's social and political union) It is the name of "Mrs Pankhurst", more than any other, which is associated with the struggle for the enfranchisement of women immediately preceding World War I.
Early life
She was born Emmeline Goulden in Stretford, Lancashire, England to abolitionist Robert Goulden and feminist Sophia Crane, and married Richard Marsden Pankhurst, a barrister, in Salford in 1879.[1] Richard Pankhurst was already a supporter of the women's suffrage movement, and had been the author of the Married Women's Property Acts of 1870 and 1882.[2]
Foundation of suffrage organisations
In 1889, Pankhurst founded the Women's Franchise League, but her campaign was interrupted by her husband's death in 1898. [3] In 1903 she founded the better-known Women's Social and Political Union, an organization most famous for its militancy which began in 1905. [4] Its members included Annie Kenney, Emily Wilding Davison who was killed by the King's horse in the 1913 Epsom Derby as the result of a suffragette protest, and the composer Dame Ethel Mary Smyth.[5][6][7] Pankhurst was joined in the movement by her daughters, Christabel Pankhurst and Sylvia Pankhurst, both of whom would make a substantial contribution to the campaign in different ways.[8] Her other daughter, Adela Pankhurst emigrated to Australia where she was politically active in first the Communist Party of Australia and then the fascist Australia First Movement.[9] At one point, Pankhurst lived in an apartment that was located at 159 Knightsbridge, London. The address still exists, but is now operating as The Knightsbridge Green Hotel.
Pankhurst's tactics for drawing attention to the movement led to her being imprisoned several times but, because of her high profile, she did not at first endure the same privations as many of the imprisoned working-class suffragettes. However, she did experience force-feeding after going on hunger strike on various occasions. Her approach to the campaign did not endear her to everyone, and there were splits within the movement as a result. Her autobiography, My Own Story, was published in 1914.
In 1914, World War I broke out, and Pankhurst felt that nothing should interfere with her country's efforts to win. All attempts to gain votes for women were put on hold, and her efforts were instead directed to urging women to take over men's jobs, so that the men could go and fight in the war. With support from David Lloyd George, she organised a parade of 30,000 women, using £2,000 funding from the government, to encourage employers to let women take over men's jobs in industry. On September 8, 1914, Christabel re-appeared at the London Opera House, after her long exile, to utter a declaration on "The German Peril". Pankhurst toured the country, making recruiting speeches. Her supporters handed white feathers to every young man they encountered wearing civilian dress, and bobbed up at Hyde Park meetings with placards: "Intern Them All".
Enlistment of the unenlisted was of the highest priority. As Sylvia Pankhurst pointed out in her chronicle, The Suffragette Movement, her mother and sister rallied their followers in an effort to reroute the militant momentum which they had so successfully orchestrated in the struggle for suffrage:
Characteristically, Mrs. Pankhurst threw all her energies and all her influence into the effort, which now, designated itself pro-war and pro-conscription. Although not all of the members of the suffrage movement backed the war, Mrs. Pankhurst’s influence swayed many to follow her lead. Giving its energies wholly to the prosecution of the War, it rushed to a furious extreme, its Chauvinism unexampled amongst all the other women’s societies.[10]
The British government started to implement voting rights for women, across the then United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, in March 1918. While the Representation of the People Act 1918 only gave voting rights to women over 30, and that with a property qualification, while all men over 21 were enfranchised, the Suffragettes nevertheless saw it as a great victory. In November 1918, women over 21 were given the right to become Members of Parliament — meaning women could be MPs and not be allowed to vote. In 1928, women finally achieved equal voting rights to men in the United State
Later life
Pankhurst died at the age of 69, ten years after seeing her most ardently pursued goal come to fruition.
She is buried at the Brompton Cemetery.
Writings (selected)
- The Powers and Duties of Poor Law Guardians in Times of Exceptional Distress, 1895.
- The Present Position of the Women’s Suffrage Movement in: The Case for Women’s Suffrage, hg.v. B. Villiers, 1907.
- The Importance of the Vote, 1908.
- Suffrages Speeches from the Dock, 1912.
- My own Story (1914), Reissued by Greenwood Publishing Group, 1985.
Secondary literature
- Piers Brendon, Eminent Edwardians (Houghton Mifflin Company, 1980) ISBN 0-395-29195-X
- Linda Hoy, Profiles: Emmeline Pankhurst, 1985
- Martin Pugh, The Pankhursts, Penguin 2002
- Sylvia Pankhurst, The Suffragette Movement: An Intimate Account of Persons and Ideals, Reissued in 1984 by Chatto & Windus
- June Purvis Emmeline Pankhurst: a biography Routledge, 2002
Popular Culture
- In the Doctor Who TV episode "Smith and Jones", the Tenth Doctor told his assistant Martha Jones that Emmeline Pankhurst had stolen his laser spanner.
- In Disney's Mary Poppins, Mrs. Banks sings "Take heart for Mrs. Pankhurst has been clapped in irons again!" in the song Sister Sufragette
- In Helen Fielding's novel Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason,Tom tries to convince Bridget to vote and says, "Go on then. Remember Mrs. Pankhurst."
See also
References
- ^ Who was Emmeline Pankhurst educationforum.co.uk
- ^ Emmeline Goulden Pankhurst (1858 - 1928) BBC history
- ^ educationforum para 4
- ^ BBC para 4
- ^ educationforum
- ^ Emily Wilding Davison historylearningsite.co.uk
- ^ Dame Ethel Smyth ibiblio.org
- ^ Emmeline Pankhurst about.com, Jone Johnson Lewis, para 11
- ^ From Fabian to fascist Phil Shannon's review of Adela Pankhurst: The Wayward Suffragette 1885-1961
- ^ Pankhurst, Sylvia. The Suffragette Movement, p. 593.
External links
- Rollyson, Carl, "A Conservative Revolutionary: Emmeline Pankhurst", Virginia Quarterly Review, Spring 2003.
- Marriage to Dr Richard Pankhurst, 1879
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)