author
Emmeline Pankhurst
1858–1928
A fierce campaigner who turned the fight for women’s votes into one of the defining political movements of modern Britain. Best known for leading the suffragettes, she remains a powerful symbol of courage, disruption, and change.
1 Audiobook
My own story
by Emmeline Pankhurst
About the author
Born in Manchester in 1858, Emmeline Pankhurst grew up in a politically active family and became involved in the struggle for women’s rights at a young age. After marrying lawyer Richard Pankhurst, who supported women’s suffrage and other reform causes, she combined family life with increasing political activism.
In 1903, frustrated by the slow pace of change, she founded the Women’s Social and Political Union. Under her leadership, the group became famous for its uncompromising demand for votes for women and for its slogan-like insistence on action rather than patience. Pankhurst was arrested many times, and her willingness to endure prison made her one of the best-known faces of the suffrage movement.
Her methods were controversial then and still spark debate now, but her impact is hard to overstate. Emmeline Pankhurst helped force women’s suffrage into the center of British public life, and she lived to see major change: women gained the vote on equal terms with men in 1928, the year she died.