Emmeline Pankhurst . British political activist who founded the League for Women’s Voting Rights , a suffrage movement whose first achievement was the achievement, two years later, of the right to vote in local elections for married women.
Biographical synthesis
Emmelin was born in Manchester in 1858 , daughter of the marriage formed by Robert Goulden and Sophia Crane . The father was a successful businessman who always supported the cause of freedom and civil rights, such as the anti-slavery campaigns. Emmeline’s mother was one of the first feminists, being herself the one who initiated her daughter’s political education by taking her to meetings in favor of the right to vote for women, from the beginning of the year 1870 . Messrs. Goulden, despite living in narrow and quiet Victorian England They had very modern ideas about education and believed that they should give their sons and daughters the widest and most complete instruction possible. Thus, after receiving the first Letters to at a Manchester school , Emmeline was sent to a Graduate College in Paris , at the age of fifteen ( 1873 ). After finishing her studies, in 1878 , Emmeline returned to Manchester where she met the lawyer, Richard Pankhurst , a liberal committed to the cause of social justice and, also, an ardent supporter of the granting of suffrage to women.
Political activity
In 1889 , Emmeline formed the League of Women , to bring together the members of the incipient feminist movement in a unitary platform. He learned about the harsh working conditions suffered by both men and, in a very special way, women in the British Isles , which led him to promote the adoption of worker protection laws. In 1892 , Emmeline Pankhurst founded the League for Women’s Voting Rights , and about that time she and her husband joined the newly created Labor Party . Founded in 1903 the Political and Social Union of Women(WSPU), a protest movement, whose members included the famous Annie Kenney , the “martyr” of suffragism, Emily Wilding Davison and the composer Lady Ethel Smyth . His daughters Christabel and Sylvia joined the movement, contributing many things, albeit from different perspectives. In 1907 , Emmeline, together with her daughters Christabel and Sylvia, began their famous agitations in the streets of London , in the militant struggle for the achievement of the right to vote. In a period of eighteen months, Emmeline Pankhurst carried out ten hunger strikes. Some women died during the numerous riots and alarm grew in British society. TheAs August 4 as 1914 , Britain declared war on Germany . Two days later, Emmeline Pankhurst announced the suspension of all political activities of the feminist movement until the end of the war. Emmeline organized a large demonstration in London in support of the war effort under the slogan “men to fight and women to work; we will not be trampled on by the Kaiser ”. In front of more than 30,000 people, Ms. Pankhurst appealed to the Unions to allow the incorporation of women into jobs in industries and their admission to Trade Unions. In 1917 Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst formed theWomen’s Party . His program mixed the traditional demands of suffragism and the new patriotic approaches. This program included, in this way, the following: 1) The fight to the end with Germany .
2) the increase of the war effort, increasing the contingent of women workers in the industries.
3) the persecution of collaborators, fainthearted and pacifists.
4) A severe peace treaty with Germany and the dismemberment of the Austro- Hungarian Empire .
5) Equal Salary for equal work for women.
6) Equality of spouses in marriage and in divorce laws.
7) Equal rights of spouses over children.
8) Equal rights and opportunities to access the Public Service .
9) Maternity protection system.
During those years Emmeline traveled to the USA , where she lived for several years, and to Canada . When she returned to Britain in 1925 , she joined the Conservative Party and was nominated as a Conservative adopted candidate for the West End district of London . Finally, in 1928 , the British Parliament passed the Act Representation of the People (Representation of the People Act) by which the granting of the right to vote to women was approved.
Death
Emmeline Pankhurst died in London, 14 of June of 1928 at 70 years of age, having managed to see come true the dream for which he had fought all his life.