A legendary life
Emmeline Pankhurst
Emmeline Goulden Pankhurst
14 or 15 July 1858 – 14 June 1928
British suffrage leader who founded the Women's Social and Political Union and made militant direct action central to the campaign for women's votes.
Her story
A life that changed history
Emmeline Pankhurst founded the Women's Franchise League in 1889 and the Women's Social and Political Union in 1903. Under her leadership, the WSPU used confrontational and sometimes destructive tactics; Pankhurst was repeatedly imprisoned and participated in hunger strikes. She died shortly before the 1928 law that granted British women the parliamentary vote on the same terms as men.
“Human life for us is sacred, but we say if any life is to be sacrificed it shall be ours; we won't do it ourselves, but we will put the enemy in the position where they will have to choose between giving us freedom or giving us death.”
"Freedom or Death" speech, Hartford, 13 November 1913; transcript cited by the U.S. National Park Service — https://www.nps.gov/people/emmeline-pankhurst.htm