Emmeline Pankhurst
Emmeline Pankhurst | |
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Statue of Emmeline Pankhurst Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst Memorial | |
Occupation(s) | Political activist and suffragette |
Political party | Independent Labour Party (1890s) Women's Party (1917–1919) Conservative Party (1926–1928) |
Movement | Women's Social and Political Union |
Spouse | |
Children | 5, including (great-grandson) |
Emmeline Pankhurst (
Born in the
In 1903, Pankhurst founded the
With the advent of the
In 1918, the Representation of the People Act granted votes to all men over the age of 21 and women over the age of 30. This discrepancy was intended to ensure that men did not become minority voters as a consequence of the huge number of deaths suffered during the First World War.[10]
She transformed the WSPU machinery into the
Early life
Emmeline Goulden was born on Sloan Street in the Moss Side district of Manchester on 15 July 1858. At school, her teachers called her Emily, a name she preferred.[13] Although her birth certificate says otherwise, she believed and later claimed her birthday was a day earlier, on Bastille Day (14 July). Most biographies, including those written by her daughters, repeat this claim. Feeling a kinship with the female revolutionaries who stormed the Bastille, she said in 1908: "I have always thought that the fact that I was born on that day had some kind of influence over my life."[14] The family into which she was born had been steeped in political agitation for generations; her mother, Sophia, was a Manx woman from the Isle of Man who was descended from men who were charged with social unrest and slander.[15]
In 1881, the Isle of Man became the first place in the British Isles to grant women the right to vote in Manx national elections (the Isle does not return members to the UK Parliament).
The Gouldens' first son died at the age of three, but they had 10 other children; Emmeline was the eldest of five daughters. Soon after her birth, the family moved to Seedley, where her father had co-founded a small business. He was also active in local politics, serving for several years on the Salford town council. He was an enthusiastic supporter of dramatic organisations including the Manchester Athenaeum and the Dramatic Reading Society. He owned a theatre in Salford for several years, where he played the leads in several Shakespeare plays. Goulden absorbed an appreciation of drama and theatrics from her father, which she used later in social activism.[19] The Gouldens included their children in social activism. As part of the movement to end U.S. slavery, Robert welcomed American abolitionist Henry Ward Beecher when he visited Manchester. Sophia used the novel Uncle Tom's Cabin, written by Beecher's sister Harriet Beecher Stowe, as a regular source of bedtime stories for her sons and daughters. In her 1914 autobiography My Own Story, Goulden recalls visiting a bazaar at a young age to collect money for newly freed slaves in the U.S.[20]
Emmeline began to read books when she was very young, with one source claiming that she was reading as early as the age of three.[21] She read the Odyssey at the age of nine and enjoyed the works of John Bunyan, especially his 1678 story The Pilgrim's Progress.[22] Another of her favourite books was Thomas Carlyle's three-volume treatise The French Revolution: A History, and she later said the work "remained all [her] life a source of inspiration".[22] Despite her avid consumption of books, however, she was not given the educational advantages enjoyed by her brothers. Their parents believed that the girls needed most to learn the art of "making home attractive" and other skills desired by potential husbands.[23] The Gouldens deliberated carefully about future plans for their sons' education, but they expected their daughters to marry young and avoid paid work.[24] Although they supported women's suffrage and the general advancement of women in society, the Gouldens believed their daughters incapable of the goals of their male peers. Feigning sleep one evening as her father came into her bedroom, Goulden heard him pause and say to himself, "What a pity she wasn't born a lad."[23]
It was through her parents' interest in women's suffrage that Goulden was first introduced to the subject. Her mother received and read the Women's Suffrage Journal, and Goulden grew fond of its editor Lydia Becker.[25] At the age of 14, she returned home from school one day to find her mother on her way to a public meeting about women's voting rights. After learning that Becker would be speaking, she insisted on attending. Goulden was enthralled by Becker's address and later wrote, "I left the meeting a conscious and confirmed suffragist."[26] A year later, she arrived in Paris to attend the École Normale de Neuilly. The school provided its female pupils with classes in chemistry and bookkeeping, in addition to traditionally feminine arts such as embroidery. Her roommate was Noémie, the daughter of Victor Henri Rochefort, who had been imprisoned in New Caledonia for his support of the Paris Commune. The girls shared tales of their parents' political exploits and remained good friends for years.[27] Goulden was so fond of Noémie and the school that she returned with her sister Mary Jane as a parlour boarder after graduating. Noémie had married a Swiss painter and quickly found a suitable French husband for her English friend. When Robert refused to provide a dowry for his daughter, the man withdrew his offer of marriage and Goulden returned, miserable, to Manchester.[28]
Marriage and family
In the autumn of 1878, at the age of 20, Goulden met and began a relationship with
During the 1880s, living at the Goulden cottage with her parents in Seedley, then at 1 Drayton Terrace Chester Rd Old Trafford (1881 census Stretford) opposite Richards parents home, Emmeline Pankhurst tended to her husband and children, but still devoted time to political activities. Although she gave birth to five children in ten years, both she and Richard believed that she should not be "a household machine".[32] Thus a butler was hired to help with the children as Pankhurst involved herself with the Women's Suffrage Society. Their daughter Christabel was born on 22 September 1880, less than a year after the wedding. Pankhurst gave birth to another daughter, Estelle Sylvia, in 1882, and their son Henry Francis Robert, nicknamed Frank, in 1884. Soon afterwards Richard Pankhurst left the Liberal Party. He began expressing more radical socialist views and argued a case in court against several wealthy businessmen. These actions roused Robert Goulden's ire and the mood in the house became tense. In 1885, the Pankhursts moved to Chorlton-on-Medlock, and their daughter Adela was born. They moved to London the following year, where Richard ran unsuccessfully for election as a Member of Parliament and Pankhurst opened a small fabric shop called Emerson and Company, together with her sister Mary Jane.[33][34]
In 1888, Pankhurst's son Frank developed diphtheria. He died on 11 September. Overwhelmed with grief, Pankhurst commissioned two portraits of the dead boy but was unable to look at them and hid them in a bedroom cupboard. The family concluded that a faulty drainage system at the back of their house had caused their son's illness. Pankhurst blamed the poor conditions of the neighbourhood, and the family moved to a more affluent middle class district at Russell Square. She was soon pregnant once more and declared that the child was "Frank coming again".[35] She gave birth to a son on 7 July 1889 and named him Henry Francis in honour of his deceased brother.[33]
Pankhurst made their Russell Square home into a centre for political intellectuals and activists, including, "Socialists, Protesters, Anarchists, Suffragists, Free Thinkers, Radicals and Humanitarians of all schools."[36] She took pleasure in decorating the house – especially with furnishings from Asia – and clothing the family in tasteful apparel. Her daughter Sylvia later wrote: "Beauty and appropriateness in her dress and household appointments seemed to her at all times an indispensable setting to public work."[36]
The Pankhursts hosted a variety of guests including Indian MP Dadabhai Naoroji, socialist activists Herbert Burrows and Annie Besant, and French anarchist Louise Michel.[36]
Women's Franchise League
In 1888, Britain's first nationwide coalition of groups advocating women's right to vote, the National Society for Women's Suffrage (NSWS), split after a majority of members decided to accept organisations affiliated with political parties. Angry at this decision, some of the group's leaders, including Lydia Becker and Millicent Fawcett, stormed out of the meeting and created an alternative organisation committed to the "old rules," called the Great College Street Society after the location of its headquarters. Pankhurst aligned herself with the "new rules" group, which became known as the Parliament Street Society (PSS). Some members of the PSS favoured a piecemeal approach to gaining the vote. Because it was often assumed that married women did not need the vote since their husbands "voted for them," some PSS members felt that the vote for single women and widows was a practical step along the path to full suffrage. When the reluctance within the PSS to advocate on behalf of married women became clear, Pankhurst and her husband helped organise another new group dedicated to voting rights for all women – married and unmarried.[37]
The inaugural meeting of the
The WFL was considered a radical organisation, since in addition to women's suffrage it supported
Independent Labour Party
Pankhurst's shop never succeeded and he had trouble attracting business in London. With the family's finances in jeopardy, Richard travelled regularly to
Pankhurst began to work with several political organisations, distinguishing herself for the first time as an activist in her own right and gaining respect in the community. One biographer describes this period as her "emergence from Richard's shadow."
In 1888 Pankhurst had met and befriended Keir Hardie, a socialist from Scotland. He was elected to parliament in 1891 and two years later helped to create the Independent Labour Party (ILP). Excited about the range of issues which the ILP pledged to confront, Pankhurst resigned from the WFL and applied to join the ILP. The local branch refused her admission on the grounds of her sex, but she eventually joined the ILP nationally. Christabel later wrote of her mother's enthusiasm for the party and its organising efforts: "In this movement she hoped there might be the means of righting every political and social wrong."[44][45]
One of her first activities with the ILP found Pankhurst distributing food to poor men and women through the Committee for the Relief of the Unemployed. In December 1894 she was elected to the position of
The first time I went into the place I was horrified to see little girls seven and eight years old on their knees scrubbing the cold stones of the long corridors ... bronchitis was epidemic among them most of the time ... I found that there were pregnant women in that workhouse, scrubbing floors, doing the hardest kind of work, almost until their babies came into the world ... Of course the babies are very badly protected ... These poor, unprotected mothers and their babies I am sure were potent factors in my education as a militant.[46]
Pankhurst immediately began to change these conditions, and established herself as a successful voice of reform on the Board of Guardians. Her chief opponent was a passionate man named Mainwaring, known for his rudeness. Recognising that his loud anger was hurting his chances of persuading those aligned with Pankhurst, he kept a note nearby during meetings: "Keep your temper!"[47]
After helping her husband with another unsuccessful parliamentary campaign, Pankhurst faced legal troubles in 1896 when she and two men violated a court order against ILP meetings at Boggart Hole Clough. With Richard's volunteering his time as legal counsel, they refused to pay fines, and the two men spent a month in prison. The punishment was never ordered for Pankhurst, however, possibly because the magistrate feared public backlash against the imprisonment of a woman so respected in the community. Asked by an ILP reporter if she were prepared to spend time in prison, Pankhurst replied: "Oh, yes, quite. It wouldn't be so very dreadful, you know, and it would be a valuable experience."[48] Although ILP meetings were eventually permitted, the episode was a strain on Pankhurst's health and caused loss of income for their family.[49]
Richard's death
During the struggle at Boggart Hole Clough, Richard Pankhurst began to experience severe
The loss of her husband left Pankhurst with new responsibilities and a significant amount of debt. She moved the family to a smaller house at 62 Nelson Street, resigned from the Board of Guardians, and was given a paid position as Registrar of Births and Deaths in Chorlton. This work gave her more insight into the conditions of women in the region. She wrote in her autobiography: "They used to tell me their stories, dreadful stories some of them, and all of them pathetic with that patient and uncomplaining pathos of poverty."
The individual identities of the Pankhurst children began to emerge around the time of their father's death. Before long they were all involved in the struggle for women's suffrage. Christabel enjoyed a privileged status among the daughters, as Sylvia noted in 1931: "She was our mother's favourite; we all knew it, and I, for one, never resented the fact."[54] Christabel did not share her mother's fervour for political work, however, until she befriended the suffrage activists Esther Roper and Eva Gore-Booth. She soon became involved with the suffrage movement and joined her mother at speaking events.[55] Sylvia took lessons from a respected local artist and soon received a scholarship to the Manchester School of Art. She went on to study art in Florence and Venice.[56] The younger children, Adela and Harry, had difficulty finding a path for their studies. Adela was sent to a local boarding school, where she was cut off from her friends and contracted head lice. Harry also had difficulty at school; he suffered from measles and vision problems.[57]
Women's Social and Political Union/WSPU
By 1903, Pankhurst believed that years of moderate speeches and promises about women's suffrage from members of parliament (MPs) had yielded no progress. Although suffrage bills in 1870, 1886, and 1897 had shown promise, each was defeated. She doubted that political parties, with their many agenda items, would ever make women's suffrage a priority. She even broke with the
The group's early militancy took non-violent forms. In addition to making speeches and gathering petition signatures, the WSPU organised rallies and published a newsletter called Votes for Women. The group also convened a series of "Women's Parliaments" for example, in Caxton Hall, to coincide with official government sessions. When a bill for women's suffrage was filibustered on 12 May 1905, Pankhurst and other WSPU members began a loud protest outside the Parliament building. Police immediately forced them away from the building, where they regrouped and demanded passage of the bill. Although the bill was never resurrected, Pankhurst considered it a successful demonstration of militancy's power to capture attention.[61] Pankhurst declared in 1906: "We are at last recognized as a political party; we are now in the swim of politics, and are a political force."[62]
Before long, all three of her daughters became active with the WSPU. Christabel was arrested after spitting at a policeman during a meeting of the Liberal Party in October 1905;[63] Adela and Sylvia were arrested a year later during a protest outside Parliament.[64] Pankhurst was arrested for the first time in February 1908, when she tried to enter Parliament to deliver a protest resolution to Prime Minister H. H. Asquith. She was charged with obstruction and sentenced to six weeks in prison. She spoke out against the conditions of her confinement, including vermin, meagre food, and the "civilised torture of solitary confinement and absolute silence" to which she and others were ordered.[65] Pankhurst saw imprisonment as a means to publicise the urgency of women's suffrage; in June 1909 she struck a police officer twice in the face to ensure she would be arrested. Pankhurst was arrested seven times before women's suffrage was approved. During her trial on 21 October 1908 she told the court: "We are here not because we are law-breakers; we are here in our efforts to become law-makers."[66][67]
The exclusive focus of the WSPU on votes for women was another hallmark of its militancy. While other organisations agreed to work with individual political parties, the WSPU insisted on separating itself from – and in many cases opposing – parties which did not make women's suffrage a priority. The group protested against all candidates belonging to the party of the ruling government since it refused to pass women's suffrage legislation. This brought them into immediate conflict with Liberal Party organisers, particularly since many Liberal candidates supported women's suffrage. (One early target of WSPU opposition was future Prime Minister Winston Churchill; his opponent attributed Churchill's defeat in part to "those ladies who are sometimes laughed at.")[68]
Members of the WSPU were sometimes heckled and derided for spoiling elections for Liberal candidates. On 18 January 1908, Pankhurst and her associate Nellie Martel were attacked by an all-male crowd of Liberal supporters who blamed the WSPU for costing them a recent by-election to the Conservative candidate. The men threw clay, rotten eggs, and stones packed in snow; the women were beaten and Pankhurst's ankle was severely bruised.[69] Similar tensions later formed with Labour. Until party leaders made the vote for women a priority, however, the WSPU vowed to continue its militant activism. Pankhurst and others in the union saw party politics as distracting to the goal of women's suffrage and criticised other organisations for putting party loyalty ahead of women's votes.[70]
As the WSPU gained recognition and notoriety for its actions, Pankhurst resisted efforts to democratise the organisation itself. In 1907 a small group of members led by
Tactical intensification
On 21 June 1908, 500,000 activists rallied in Hyde Park to demand votes for women. This day is the beginning of "Women' s Sunday". It was organised by the WSPN, the massive demonstration for women's suffrage saw thousands march in seven processions all over London, gathering for a day of peaceful protest. [73] Asquith and leading MPs responded with indifference. Angered by this intransigence and abusive police activity, some WSPU members increased the severity of their actions. Soon after the rally, twelve women gathered in
In 1909 the hunger strike was added to the WSPU's repertoire of resistance. On 24 June Marion Wallace Dunlop was arrested for writing an excerpt from the Bill of Rights (1688 or 1689) on a wall in the House of Commons. Angered by the conditions of the jail, Dunlop went on a hunger strike. When it proved effective, fourteen women imprisoned for smashing windows began to fast. WSPU members soon became known around the country for holding prolonged hunger strikes to protest their incarceration. Prison authorities frequently force-fed the women, using tubes inserted through the nose or mouth. The painful techniques (which, in the case of mouth-feeding, required the use of steel gags to force the mouth open) brought condemnation from suffragists and medical professionals.[75]
These tactics caused some tension between the WSPU and more moderate organisations, which had coalesced into the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS). That group's leader, Millicent Fawcett, originally hailed WSPU members for their courage and dedication to the cause. By 1912, however, she declared that hunger strikes were mere publicity stunts and that militant activists were "the chief obstacles in the way of the success of the suffrage movement in the House of Commons."[76] The NUWSS refused to join a march of women's suffrage groups after demanding without success that the WSPU end its support of property destruction. Fawcett's sister Elizabeth Garrett Anderson later resigned from the WSPU for similar reasons.[77]
Press coverage was mixed; many journalists noted that crowds of women responded positively to speeches by Pankhurst, while others condemned her radical approach to the issue.
The last half of the century's first decade was a time of sorrow, loneliness, and constant work for Pankhurst. In 1907 she sold her home in Manchester and began an itinerant lifestyle, moving from place to place as she spoke and marched for women's suffrage. She stayed with friends and in hotels, carrying her few possessions in suitcases. Although she was energized by the struggle–and found joy in giving energy to others– her constant travelling meant separation from her children, especially Christabel, who had become the national coordinator of the WSPU. In 1909, as Pankhurst planned a speaking tour of the United States, Henry was paralyzed after his spinal cord became inflamed. She hesitated to leave the country while he was ill, but she needed money to pay for his treatment and the tour promised to be lucrative. On her return from a successful tour, she sat by Henry's bedside as he died on 5 January 1910. Five days later she buried him beside his brother Frank in Highgate Cemetery,[79] then spoke before 5,000 people in Manchester. Liberal Party supporters who had come to heckle her remained quiet as she addressed the crowd.[80]
Conciliation, force-feeding attempt, and arson
After the Liberal losses in the 1910 elections, ILP member and journalist
As subsequent Conciliation Bills were introduced, WSPU leaders advocated a halt to militant tactics. Aileen Preston was appointed as Pankhurst's driver in April 1911, to drive her around the country to help spread the suffrage message.[84][85]
In March 1912, the second bill was in jeopardy and Pankhurst joined a fresh outbreak of window-smashing. Extensive property damage led police to raid the WSPU offices. Pankhurst and Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence were tried at the
Pankhurst was spared further force-feeding attempts after this incident, but she continued to violate the law and – when imprisoned – starve herself in protest. During the following two years she was arrested numerous times but was frequently released after several days because of her
In 1912, WSPU members adopted arson as another tactic to win the vote. After Prime Minister Asquith had visited the Theatre Royal in Dublin, suffragette activists Gladys Evans, Lizzie Baker, Mary Leigh, and Mabel Capper attempted to cause an explosion using gunpowder and benzine, which resulted in minimal damage. During the same evening, Mary Leigh threw an axe at the carriage containing John Redmond (leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party), the Lord Mayor, and Asquith.[89]
Over the next two years women set fire to a refreshments building in Regent's Park, an orchid house at Kew Gardens, pillar boxes, and a railway carriage. Emily Davison threw herself under the Kings Horse at the Epsom Derby in 1913. Her funeral drew 55,000 attendees along the streets and at the funeral. This gave significant publicity to the movement. Although Pankhurst confirmed that these women had not been commanded by her or Christabel, they both assured the public that they supported the arsonist suffragettes. There were similar incidents around the country. One WSPU member, for example, put a small hatchet into the Prime Minister's carriage inscribed with the words: "Votes for Women,"[90] and other suffragettes used acid to burn the same slogan into golf courses used by MPs.[91] In 1914, Mary Richardson slashed the Velasquez painting Rokeby Venus to protest against Pankhurst's imprisonment.[92]
Defection and dismissal
The WSPU's approval of property destruction led to the departure of several important members. The first were Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence and her husband
The deepest rift in the Pankhurst family came in November 1913 when Sylvia spoke at a meeting of socialists and trade unionists in support of trade union organiser
In January Sylvia was summoned to Paris, where Emmeline and Christabel were waiting. Their mother had just returned from another tour of the US, and Sylvia had just been released from prison. All three women were exhausted and stressed, which added considerably to the tension. In her 1931 book The Suffrage Movement Sylvia describes Christabel as an unreasonable figure, haranguing her for refusing to toe the WSPU line:
She turned to me. "You have your own ideas. We do not want that; we want all our women to take their instructions and walk in step like an army!" Too tired, too ill to argue, I made no reply. I was oppressed by a sense of tragedy, grieved by her ruthlessness. Her glorification of autocracy seemed to me remote indeed from the struggle we were waging, the grim fight even now proceeding in the cells. I thought of many others who had been thrust aside for some minor difference.[96]
With their mother's blessing, Christabel ordered Sylvia's group to dissociate from the WSPU. Pankhurst tried to persuade the ELFS to remove the word "suffragettes" from its name, since it was inextricably linked to the WSPU. When Sylvia refused, her mother switched to fierce anger in a letter:
You are unreasonable, always have been & I fear always will be. I suppose you were made so! ... Had you chosen a name which we could approve we could have done much to launch you & advertise your society by name. Now you must take your own way of doing so. I am sorry but you make your own difficulties by an incapacity to look at situations from other people's point of view as well as your own. Perhaps in time you will learn the lessons that we all have to learn in life.[97]
Adela, unemployed and unsure of her future, had become a worry for Pankhurst as well. She decided that Adela should move to Australia, and paid for her relocation. They never saw one another again.[98]
The Women's Party
In November 1917 the WSPU's weekly newspaper announced that the WSPU was to become the Women's Party. Twelve months later on Tuesday 19 November at the Queen's Hall in London Emmeline Pankhurst said that her daughter Christabel would be their candidate at the forthcoming General Election, the first at which women could stand as candidates. They didn't say which constituency they would fight but a few days later Westbury in Wiltshire was identified. Emmeline lobbied Prime Minister David Lloyd George to ensure Christabel would have coalition backing. However, as these discussions were taking place the Pankhurst's switched their attention to Smethwick in Staffordshire. The Coalition had already settled on a local candidate, Major Samuel Nock Thompson, but Bonar Law, the Conservative leader, was persuaded to ask Thompson to withdraw. Significantly, Christabel was not issued with a formal letter of support from the two leaders, the Coalition Coupon. Christabel then had a straight fight with the Labour candidate John Davison and lost by 775 votes. The Women's Party fought no other elections and closed soon after.[99]
First World War
When the
Sylvia and Adela, meanwhile, did not share their mother's enthusiasm for the war. As committed pacifists, they rejected the WSPU's support for the government. Sylvia's socialist perspective convinced her that the war was another example of capitalist oligarchs exploiting poor soldiers and workers. Adela, meanwhile, spoke against the war in Australia and made public her opposition to conscription. In a short letter, Emmeline told Sylvia: "I am ashamed to know where you and Adela stand."[7] She had a similar impatience for dissent within the WSPU; when long-time member Mary Leigh asked a question during a meeting in October 1915, Pankhurst replied: "That woman is a pro German and should leave the hall. ... I denounce you as a pro German and wish to forget that such a person ever existed."[103] Some WSPU members were outraged by this sudden rigid devotion to the government, the leadership's perceived abandonment of efforts to win the vote for women, and questions about how funds collected on behalf of suffrage were being managed with regard to the organisation's new focus. Two groups split from the WSPU: The Suffragettes of the Women's Social and Political Union (SWSPU) and the Independent Women's Social and Political Union (IWSPU), each dedicated to maintaining pressure toward women's suffrage.[104]
Pankhurst put the same energy and determination she had previously applied to women's suffrage into patriotic advocacy of the war effort. She organised rallies, toured constantly delivering speeches, and lobbied the government to help women enter the work force while men were overseas fighting. Another issue which concerned her greatly at the time was the plight of so-called
Russian delegation
Pankhurst visited North America in 1916 together with the former Secretary of State for Serbia, Čedomilj Mijatović, whose nation had been at the centre of fighting at the start of the war. They toured the United States and Canada, raising money and urging the US government to support Britain and its Canadian and other allies. Two years later, after the US entered the war, Pankhurst returned to the United States, encouraging suffragettes there – who had not suspended their militancy – to support the war effort by sidelining activities related to the vote. She also spoke about her fears of communist insurgency, which she considered a grave threat to Russian democracy.[107]
By June 1917 the
In August she met with
Accomplishment of suffrage (1918)
When she returned from Russia, Pankhurst was delighted to find that women's right to vote was finally on its way to becoming a reality. The 1918
Post-war activities
In the years after the
Emmeline Pankhurst also became active in political campaigning again when a bill was passed allowing women to run for the House of Commons. Many Women's Party members urged Pankhurst to stand for election, but she insisted that Christabel was a better choice. She campaigned tirelessly for her daughter, lobbying Prime Minister Lloyd George for his support and at one point delivering a passionate speech in the rain. Christabel lost by a very slim margin to the Labour Party candidate, and the recount showed a difference of 775 votes. One biographer called it "the bitterest disappointment of Emmeline's life."[116] The Women's Party withered from existence soon afterward.[117]
As a result of her many trips to North America, Pankhurst became fond of Canada, stating in an interview that "there seems to be more equality between men and women [there] than in any other country I know."
Back in London Emmeline was visited by Sylvia, who had not seen her mother in years. Their politics were by now very different, and Sylvia was living, unmarried, with an Italian anarchist. Sylvia described a moment of familial affection when they met, followed by a sad distance between them. Emmeline's adopted daughter Mary, however, remembered the meeting differently. According to her version, Emmeline set her teacup down and walked silently out of the room, leaving Sylvia in tears.[123] Christabel, meanwhile, had become a convert to Adventism and devoted much of her time to the church. The British press sometimes made light of the varied paths followed by the once indivisible family.[124]
In 1926 Pankhurst joined the Conservative Party and two years later ran as a candidate for Parliament in Whitechapel and St George's. Her transformation from a fiery supporter of the ILP and window-smashing radical to an official Conservative Party member surprised many people. She replied succinctly: "My war experience and my experience on the other side of the Atlantic have changed my views considerably."[125] Her biographers insist that the move was more complex; she was devoted to a programme of women's empowerment and anti-communism. Both the Liberal and Labour parties bore grudges for her work against them in the WSPU, and the Conservative Party had a victorious record after the war and a significant majority. Pankhurst may have joined the Conservative Party as much to secure the vote for women as from ideological affinity.[126]
Illness and death
Pankhurst's campaign for Parliament was preempted by her ill health and a final scandal involving Sylvia. The years of touring, lectures, imprisonment and hunger strikes had taken their toll; fatigue and illness became a regular part of Pankhurst's life. Even more painful, however, was the news in April 1928 that Sylvia had given birth out of wedlock. She had named the child
As her health deteriorated, Pankhurst moved into a nursing home in Hampstead. She requested that she be treated by the doctor who attended to her during her hunger strikes. His use of the stomach pump had helped her feel better while in prison; her nurses were sure that the shock of such treatment would severely wound her, but Christabel felt obliged to carry out her mother's request. Before the procedure could be carried out, however, she fell into a critical condition from which none expected her to recover. On Thursday, 14 June 1928, Pankhurst died at the age of 69.[129] She was interred in Brompton Cemetery in London.[127]
Legacy
News of Emmeline Pankhurst's death was announced around the country, and extensively in North America. Her funeral service on 18 June 1928 was filled with her former WSPU colleagues and those who had worked beside her in various capacities. The Daily Mail described the procession as "like a dead general in the midst of a mourning army".
Shortly after the funeral, one of Pankhurst's bodyguards from her WSPU days,
A proposal to move the statue of Pankhurst away from the Houses of Parliament to the private Regent's University London in Regent's Park was submitted to Westminster City Council planning department in July 2018 by former Conservative MP Sir Neil Thorne. This proposal was withdrawn in September 2018 after widespread anger and a public campaign against it.[137][138][139] The planning application received 896 comments, 887 of them objections.[140] A 38 Degrees petition against the removal of the statue attracted 180,839 signatures.[141] The Curator's Office at the Palace of Westminster commissioned a report into the plan to remove the statue. Published on 22 August 2018, it concluded 'The Memorial to Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst is of high significance, which is not fully recognised through its listing at Grade II. An application has been made to Historic England to upgrade the memorial to Grade II*. This is based on it having 'more than special interest', in terms of its unique history, its artistic quality and the importance of its setting next to the Houses of Parliament. This proposal to move the memorial from Victoria Tower Gardens to Regent's Park would cause substantial harm to the significance of the memorial, as well has harm to the Westminster Abbey and Parliament Square Conservation Area...The proposal to move the memorial, therefore, should not be granted planning permission or listed building consent.[142]
During the twentieth century Emmeline Pankhurst's value to the movement for women's suffrage was debated passionately, and no consensus was achieved. Her daughters Sylvia and Christabel weighed in with books, scornful and laudatory respectively, about their time in the struggle. Sylvia's 1931 book The Suffrage Movement describes her mother's political shift at the start of the First World War as the beginning of a betrayal of her family (especially her father) and the movement. It set the tone for much of the socialist and activist history written about the WSPU and particularly solidified Emmeline Pankhurst's reputation as an unreasonable autocrat. Christabel's "Unshackled: The Story of How We Won the Vote," released in 1959, paints her mother as generous and selfless to a fault, offering herself completely to the most noble causes. It provided a sympathetic counterpart to Sylvia's attacks and continued the polarised discussion; detached and objective assessment has rarely been a part of Pankhurst scholarship.[3]
Recent biographies show that historians differ about whether Emmeline Pankhurst's militancy helped or hurt the movement;[3][4] however, there is general agreement that the WSPU raised public awareness of the movement in ways that proved essential. Baldwin compared her to Martin Luther and Jean-Jacques Rousseau: individuals who were not the sum total of the movements in which they took part, but who nevertheless played crucial roles in struggles of social and political reform. In the case of Pankhurst, this reform took place in both intentional and unintentional ways. By defying the roles of wife and mother as the docile companion, Pankhurst helped to pave the way for many future feminists, though some would later decry her support for empire and endorsement of the idea of "race betterment."[4][120]
In 1987 one of her homes in Manchester was opened as the Pankhurst Centre, an all-women gathering space and museum.[143] In 2002, Pankhurst was placed at number 27 in the BBC's poll of the 100 Greatest Britons.[144] In 2006, a blue plaque for Pankhurst and her daughter, Christabel was placed by English Heritage at 50 Clarendon Road, Notting Hill, London W11 3AD, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, where they had lived.[145]
In January 2016, following a public vote, it was announced that
Helen Pankhurst, the great-granddaughter of Emmeline Pankhurst and the granddaughter of Sylvia Pankhurst, works for women's rights. Along with her daughter, she founded Olympic Suffragettes, which campaigns on a number of women's rights issues.[150]
Pankhurst has appeared in several works of popular culture. In the 1974 BBC television miniseries Shoulder to Shoulder, Pankhurst is played by Siân Phillips. In the 2015 film Suffragette, Pankhurst is played by Meryl Streep.[151]
Works
- Emmeline Pankhurst (1907). "Wikidata Q107130938.
See also
- History of feminism
- List of civil rights leaders
- Suffragette bombing and arson campaign
- List of suffragists and suffragettes
- List of women's rights activists
- Timeline of women's suffrage
- Women's suffrage organisations
Notes
- ^ Riddell, Fern (6 February 2018). "Suffragettes, violence and militancy". British Library. Archived from the original on 10 September 2021. Retrieved 15 September 2021.
- ^ Warner, Marina (14 June 1999). "Emmeline Pankhurst – Time 100 People of the Century". Time. Archived from the original on 6 March 2008.
- ^ a b c Bartley, pp. 4–12; Purvis 2002, pp. 1–8.
- ^ a b c Bartley, pp. 240–241; Purvis 2002, pp. 361–363.
- ^ a b E. Pankhurst 1914, p. 38.
- ISBN 978-0-618-75828-9.
- ^ a b c Quoted in Purvis 2002, p. 270.
- ISBN 9780992709419.
- ^ "White Feather Feminism". Archived from the original on 6 December 2013. Retrieved 24 February 2014.
- ^ "Representation of the People Act 1918". Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 24 February 2014.
- ^ Purvis 2002, p. 248.
- ^ "Lord Lexden reminds Conservatives that Mrs Pankhurst joined their Party in the 1920s". Lord Lexden OBE. 8 August 2012. Archived from the original on 11 July 2018. Retrieved 7 August 2019.
- ^ "Emmeline Pankhurst's Birthplace: Alexandra Park Estate". Mancky. Archived from the original on 12 July 2019. Retrieved 12 May 2019.
- ^ Quoted in Purvis 2002, p. 9; Bartley, pp. 15–16. Purvis suggests several possible reasons for the confusion. She notes that the name is spelled "Emiline" on the certificate.
- ^ Bartley, p. 16; Liddington and Norris, p. 74.
- ^ "125th Anniversary of Women's Suffrage on the Isle of Man" Archived 4 November 2008 at the Wayback Machine. 10 October 2006. Isle of Man Government; retrieved 5 August 2008.
- ^ Bartley, pp. 16–18.
- ^ Bartley, pp. 18–19; Purvis 2002, p. 9; Phillips, p. 145.
- ^ Bartley, pp. 20–21; Pugh, p. 7.
- ^ E. Pankhurst 1914, pp. 1–2; Bartley, pp. 18–19, 20–21; Purvis 2002, p. 10.
- ^ Purvis 2002, p. 9. In her autobiography, Pankhurst wrote on p. 3: "I do not remember a time when I could not read."
- ^ a b E. Pankhurst 1914, p. 3.
- ^ a b E. Pankhurst 1914, p. 6. She adds: "It used to puzzle me to understand why I was under such a particular obligation to make home attractive to my brothers. We were on excellent terms of friendship, but it was never suggested to them as a duty that they make home attractive to me."
- ^ Purvis 2002, p. 11; Bartley, pp. 22–23.
- ^ Purvis 2002, p. 20.
- ^ E. Pankhurst 1914, p. 9; Bartley, p. 22; Purvis 2002, p. 12.
- ^ E. Pankhurst 1914, p. 10; E.S. Pankhurst 1931, pp. 54–55; Bartley, pp. 23–25; Purvis 2002, pp. 12–13.
- ^ Purvis 2002, p. 14; Bartley, p. 25; West, pp. 245–246; C. Pankhurst, pp. 17–18.
- ^ E.S. Pankhurst 1931, p. 55.
- ^ E.S. Pankhurst 1931, p. 56.
- ^ Purvis 2002, pp. 15–17; Pugh, pp. 19–24; E.S. Pankhurst 1931, pp. 55–57; C. Pankhurst, pp. 20–22; Bartley, pp. 25–27.
- ^ E. Pankhurst 1914, p. 13.
- ^ a b Pugh, p. 26; E.S. Pankhurst 1931, pp. 57–58; C. Pankhurst, pp. 24–26; Purvis 2002, pp. 18–25; Bartley, p. 30.
- ^ ISBN 978-1135434021.
- ^ E.S. Pankhurst 1931, p. 103.
- ^ a b c E.S. Pankhurst, p. 90.
- ^ Purvis 2002, pp. 29–30; Bartley, pp. 38–39; Pugh, pp. 53–54; E.S. Pankhurst 1931, pp. 94–95.
- ^ Purvis 2002, p. 33; Pugh, pp. 53–54; Bartley, pp. 38–39; E.S. Pankhurst 1931, p. 95; Phillips, p. 151.
- ^ Quoted in Purvis 2002, p. 29.
- ^ Quoted in Purvis 2002, p. 31; Phillips, p. 151.
- ^ Phillips, pp. 150–151; Bartley, pp. 38–41; Purvis 2002, pp. 30–37; Pugh, pp. 51–55.
- ^ Purvis 2002, pp. 39–40; Pugh, pp. 57–60; E.S. Pankhurst, pp. 113–116.
- ^ Pugh, p. 61.
- ^ a b Bartley, pp. 42–43; Purvis 2002, pp. 40–42; Pugh, pp. 60–61.
- ^ C. Pankhurst, p. 32.
- ^ E. Pankhurst 1914, pp. 25–28.
- ^ E .S. Pankhurst 1931, p. 132.
- ^ Quoted in Purvis 2002, p. 47.
- ^ Purvis 2002, pp. 46–49; Bartley, pp. 57–59; Pugh, pp. 72–75.
- ^ Quoted in Purvis 2002, p. 52.
- ^ Purvis 2002, pp. 51–52; Bartley, pp. 59–60; Pugh, pp. 75–77.
- ^ a b E. Pankhurst 1914, p. 32–34.
- ^ Bartley, pp. 61–64; Purvis 2002, pp. 57–58; Pugh, p. 86.
- ^ E.S. Pankhurst 1931, p. 99.
- ^ , Pugh, pp. 92–93; E.S. Pankhurst 1931, pp. 164–165.
- ^ E.S. Pankhurst 1931, pp. 162–163; Pugh, pp. 96–98.
- ^ Pugh, pp. 82–83; Purvis 2002, p. 56.
- ^ Quoted in Bartley, p. 98.
- ^ Purvis 2002, pp.65–67; Bartley, pp. 71–82; Pugh, pp. 104–108.
- ISBN 1904380824.
- ^ Purvis 2002, pp. 70–73; Bartley, p. 78; Pugh, pp. 124–125.
- ^ Purvis 2002, pp. 87–88.
- ^ Purvis 2002, pp. 74–75; Bartley, pp. 78–79; E. Pankhurst 1914, p. 48.
- ^ Purvis 2002, p. 88; Bartley, p. 84
- ^ a b Quoted in Bartley, p. 103.
- ^ June Purvis, Sandra Stanley Holton (eds.), Votes For Women Archived 16 July 2019 at the Wayback Machine, Routledge, 2000, p. 120.
- ^ Quoted in Bartley, pp. 98–103 [100]; Purvis 2002, pp. 129–130.
- ^ Bartley, p. 106.
- ^ Purvis 2002, pp. 101–102; Bartley, p. 104–105.
- ^ Bartley, pp. 85–88; Purvis 2002, pp. 86–87.
- ^ Bartley, pp. 91–93; Purvis 2002, pp. 96–99; Pugh, pp. 165–168.
- ^ E. Pankhurst 1914, p. 59.
- ^ "Emmeline Pankhurst, mother of the vote". historyrevealed.com.
- ^ Purvis 2002, pp. 108–109; Bartley, pp. 96–97.
- ^ Purvis 2002, pp. 129–135; Bartley, pp. 113–114.
- ^ Quoted in Purvis 2002, p. 194.
- ^ Purvis 2002, pp. 147, 181.
- ^ Holton 1996, p. 253; Purvis 2002, pp. 135–138.
- ^ Oakley 2021, pp. 12–13
- ^ , Purvis 2002, pp. 98–99, 142–153; Bartley, p. 88.
- ^ Quoted in Purvis 2002, p. 150.
- ^ a b Purvis 2002, pp. 143–151.
- ^ E. Pankhurst 1915, p. 252.
- ^ "Suffrage Stories: Aileen Preston: Mrs Pankhurst's first 'lady chauffeuse'". Woman and her Sphere. 16 March 2021. Archived from the original on 16 March 2021. Retrieved 16 March 2021.
- ^ "Woman's Hour – Aileen Graham-Jones – BBC Sounds". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 16 March 2021.
- ^ E. Pankhurst, pp. 251–252.
- ^ E. Pankhurst 1914, p. 255; Purvis 2002, pp. 179–189, 128–132.
- ^ Bartley, pp. 152–156.
- ^ Manchester Guardian 20 July 1912, "The Dublin Outrages by Women"
- ^ Purvis 2002, p. 193.
- ^ E. Pankhurst 1914, pp. 270–271; Purvis 2002, p. 209; Bartley, p. 146.
- ^ Davies, Christie. "Velazquez in London." New Criterion. Volume: 25. Issue: 5, January 2007. p. 53.
- ^ Pugh, pp. 225–226; Purvis 2002, pp. 190–196.
- ^ Purvis 2002, pp. 237–238; Bartley, p. 158.
- ^ E. S. Pankhurst 1931, p. 518.
- ^ E. S. Pankhurst 1931, p. 517.
- ^ Quoted in Purvis 2002, p. 248.
- ^ Purvis 2002, pp. 248–249; Pugh, pp. 287–288.
- ^ Hallam, David J.A. Taking on the Men: the first women parliamentary candidates 1918 Archived 29 June 2019 at the Wayback Machine, pp. 18–19, 20, 22, 27
- ^ C. Pankhurst 1959, p. 288.
- ^ Purvis 2002, pp. 266–271; Bartley, pp. 183–188; Pugh, pp. 298–301.
- ^ Quoted in Pugh, p. 302.
- ^ Quoted in Purvis 2002, p. 283.
- ^ Purvis 2002, pp. 282–284; Bartley, pp. 187–188.
- ^ Bartley, pp. 193–195; Purvis 2002, pp. 278–280.
- ^ Quoted in Purvis 2002, p. 279; Pugh, p. 317.
- ^ Bartley, pp. 202–206; Purvis 2002, pp. 284–286.
- ^ Quoted in Purvis 2002, p. 295.
- ^ Purvis 2002, pp. 292–295; Bartley, pp. 200–201.
- ^ Quoted in Bartley, p. 201; Purvis 2002, pp. 297–299.
- ^ Quoted in Purvis 2002, p. 302.
- ^ Purvis 2002, pp. 300–303; Bartley, pp. 199–200; Pugh, pp. 340–341.
- ^ Quoted in Purvis 2002, p. 313.
- ^ Quoted in Purvis 2002, p. 312.
- ^ Purvis 2002, pp. 318–335.
- ^ Purvis 2002, p. 314.
- ^ Purvis 2002, pp. 312–314; Bartley, pp. 208–209.
- ^ Quoted in Purvis 2002, p. 331.
- ^ Bartley p. 216
- ^ a b Carter, Sarah (2017). ""Develop a Great Imperial Race": Emmeline Pankhurst, Emily Murphy, and Their Promotion of "Race Betterment" in Western Canada in the 1920s". In Colpitts, George; Devine, Heather (eds.). Finding Directions West: Readings that Locate and Dislocate Western Canada's Past. Calgary: University of Calgary Press. p. 134.
- ^ Quoted in Purvis 2002, p. 332.
- ^ Purvis 2002, pp. 337–338; Bartley, pp. 212–220.
- ^ Purvis 2002, p. 339. Bartley, p. 220.
- ^ Purvis 2002, p. 344.
- ^ Quoted in Bartley, p. 221.
- ^ Bartley, pp. 220–223; Purvis 2002, pp. 340–344.
- ^ a b Bartley, p. 230.
- ^ Purvis 2002, pp. 349–350.
- ^ Purvis 2002, pp. 350–352; Bartley, pp. 227–228.
- ^ Quoted in Pugh, p. 409.
- ^ Quoted in Purvis 2002, p. 353.
- ^ Purvis 2002, pp. 352–353; Bartley, pp. 229–230.
- ^ Quoted in Purvis 2002, p. 354.
- ^ Quoted in Purvis 2002, p. 357.
- ^ Bartley, pp. 230–231; Purvis 2002, pp. 355–357; Pugh, pp. 409–411. Pugh gives the date as 6 April, while Bartley and Purvis indicate March as the date of the statue's unveiling.
- ^ Historic England. "STATUE OF MRS EMMELINE PANKHURST, City of Westminster (1357336)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 17 September 2018.
- ^ "Suffrage Stories: Save Mrs Pankhurst's Statue: UPDATED 15 SEPTEMBER 2018". Woman and her Sphere. 15 August 2018. Archived from the original on 18 September 2018. Retrieved 17 September 2018.
- ^ Mohdin, Aamna (17 September 2018). "Emmeline Pankhurst will stand her ground outside parliament". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 8 March 2019. Retrieved 17 September 2018.
- from the original on 17 September 2018. Retrieved 17 September 2018.
- ^ "18/05778/FULL | Planning – Application Comments: Removal/dismantling of the statue of Emmeline Pankhurst at Victoria Tower gardens and making good the ground on which it stands. [Linked to 18/04572/LBC] | The Victoria Tower Gardens Millbank London SW1P 3YB". idoxpa.westminster.gov.uk. Archived from the original on 21 December 2020. Retrieved 28 February 2020.
- ^ "Stop Suffragette statue being removed from Parliament". Campaigns by You. Archived from the original on 18 September 2018. Retrieved 17 September 2018.
- ^ "Donald Insall Associates | Memorial to Emmeline Pankhurst and Christabel Pankhurst, Victoria Tower Gardens page 37" (PDF). 22 August 2018. Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 September 2018.
- ^ Bartley, pp. 240–241.
- ^ "The 100 greatest Britons: lots of pop, not so much circumstance". The Guardian. 22 August 2002. Archived from the original on 17 May 2021. Retrieved 3 June 2021.
- ^ "Pankhurst, Emmeline (1858–1928) & Pankhurst, Dame Christabel (1880–1958)". English Heritage. 21 December 1908. Archived from the original on 26 April 2018. Retrieved 26 April 2018.
- ^ "Suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst to get Manchester statue". BBC News. 20 January 2016. Archived from the original on 22 January 2016. Retrieved 20 January 2016.
- ^ Britton, Paul (14 December 2018). "Hundreds expected to join march as statue of suffragette leader Emmeline Pankhurst unveiled in Manchester". Manchester Evening News. Archived from the original on 14 December 2018. Retrieved 14 December 2018.
- ^ "Millicent Fawcett statue unveiling: the women and men whose names will be on the plinth". iNews. 24 April 2018. Archived from the original on 29 June 2019. Retrieved 25 April 2018.
- ^ "House System". Wellacre Academy. Archived from the original on 19 October 2019. Retrieved 21 October 2019.
- from the original on 21 December 2016. Retrieved 8 December 2016.
- ^ Gettell, Oliver (20 February 2014). "Meryl Streep to play British suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 29 April 2014. Retrieved 22 May 2016.
References
- Bartley, Paula. Emmeline Pankhurst. London: ISBN 0-415-20651-0.
- Brendon, Piers. Eminent Edwardians (Secker & Warburg, 1979) ISBN 978-0436068102
- Carter, Sarah. “'Develop a Great Imperial Race': Emmeline Pankhurst, Emily Murphy, and Their Promotion of 'Race Betterment' in Western Canada in the 1920s." In Finding Directions West: Readings that Locate and Dislocate Western Canada's Past, eds. George Colpitts and Heather Devine, 133–50. Calgary: University of Calgary Press, 2017. ISBN 978-1-55238-881-5.
- Fulford, Roger. Votes for Women: The Story of a Struggle. London: OCLC 191255
- Hallam, David J.A., Taking on the Men: the first women parliamentary candidates 1918, Studley, 2018. ISBN 978-1-85858-592-5(Chapter 2 "Christabel Pankhurst in Smethwick)
- Holton, Sandra Stanley. Suffrage Days: Stories from the Women's Suffrage Movement. London: Routledge, 1996. ISBN 0-415-10942-6.
- Kamm, Josephine. The Story of Mrs Pankhurst. London: Methuen, 1961. OCLC 5627746.
- Liddington, Jill and Jill Norris. One Hand Tied Behind Us: The Rise of the Women's Suffrage Movement. London: Virago Limited, 1978. ISBN 0-86068-007-X.
- Marcus, Jane, ed. Suffrage and the Pankhursts. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1987. ISBN 0-7102-0903-7.
- Oakley, Robin. The Forgotten Pankhurst Boys, Highgate Cemetery Newsletter, August 2021 [1]
- OCLC 2161124.
- Pankhurst, Emmeline. My Own Story. 1914. London: Virago Limited, 1979. ISBN 0-86068-057-6.
- OCLC 82655317.
- Phillips, Melanie. The Ascent of Woman: A History of the Suffragette Movement and the Ideas Behind It. London: Abacus, 2004. ISBN 0-349-11660-1.
- ISBN 0-14-029038-9.
- Purvis, June. Emmeline Pankhurst: A Biography. London: Routledge, 2002. ISBN 0-415-23978-8.
- Purvis, June and Sandra Stanley Holton, eds. Votes for Women. London: Routledge, 2000. ISBN 0-415-21459-9.
- ISBN 0-670-79458-9.
External links
- Works by Emmeline Pankhurst at Project Gutenberg
- Works by or about Emmeline Pankhurst at Internet Archive
- Works by Emmeline Pankhurst at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
- Emmeline Pankhurst at Flickr Commons
- Emmeline Pankhurst at IMDb
- Emmeline Pankhurst at Time 100: The Most Important People of the Century
- "Llanelli Community Heritage: Emmeline Pankhurst in Llanelli". Leading suffragette. 1 January 2001. Archived from the original on 15 January 2021. Retrieved 24 March 2015.
- Newspaper clippings about Emmeline Pankhurst in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW