The Suffragettes Project
Christabel Pankhurst, the eldest daughter of Dr. Richard Pankhurst and Emmeline Pankhurst, was born in Manchester in 1880. Christabel attended Manchester High School and although she did well in her studies her main ambition was to be a dancer. Christabel's father died of a perforated ulcer in 1898 but his wife and daughters remained active in politics.
In 1901 Christabel met Eva Gore-Booth who was trying to persuade working class women in Manchester to join the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS). Christabel was very impressed with their arguments and decided to join the campaign. Christabel's sister Sylvia Pankhurst, and her mother Emmeline Pankhurst, also became involved in the suffrage movement at this time.
The Pankhursts became frustrated by the NUWSS lack of success and in 1903 the three women formed the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU). As well as her involvement in the WSPU, Christabel was also studying for a law degree at Owens College, Manchester.
Christabel obtained her degree in 1907 but her gender prevented her from developing a career as a barrister. Christabel decided to leave Manchester and join the suffragette campaign in London. Christabel disagreed with the way the campaign was being run. The initial strategy of the WSPU had been to recruit the support of working class women. Christabel advocated a campaign that would appeal to the more prosperous members of society. Whereas Sylvia Pankhurst and Charlotte Despard argued for the vote for all adults, Christabel favoured limited suffrage, a system that would only give the vote to women with money and property. Christabel pointed out that the WSPU relied heavily on the money supplied by wealthy women.
On 4th August, 1914, England declared war on Germany. Two days later the NUWSS announced that it was suspending all political activity until the war was over. The leadership of the WSPU began negotiating with the British government. On the 10th August the government announced it was releasing all suffragettes from prison. In return, the WSPU agreed to end their militant activities and help the war effort.
The Britannia also attacked politicians and military leaders for not doing enough to win the war. In one article, Christabel accused Sir William Robertson, Chief of Imperial General Staff, of being "the tool and accomplice of the traitors, Grey, Asquith and Cecil".
In 1917 Christabel and her mother formed the Women's Party. Its twelve-point programme included: (1) A fight to the finish with Germany. (2) More vigorous war measures to include drastic food rationing, more communal kitchens to reduce waste, and the closing down of nonessential industries to release labour for work on the land and in the factories. (3) A clean sweep of all officials of enemy blood or connections from Government departments. Stringent peace terms to include the dismemberment of the Hapsburg Empire."
After the passing of the Qualification of Women Act in 1918, Christabel became one of the seventeen women candidates that stood in the post-war election. Christabel represented the Women's Party in both the 1918 and 1919 elections but was defeated both times.
In 1921 Christabel went to live in the United States where she became a prominent member of Second Adventist movement. Christabel lectured and wrote books on the Second Coming. Christabel returned to Britain in the 1930s but left for the USA at the start of the Second World War. Christabel Pankhurst died in the USA in 1958.
Emmeline Pankhurst, the daughter of Robert Goulden and Sophia Crane, was born in Manchester in 1858. Her father was successful businessman with radical political beliefs. Goulden took part in the campaigns against slavery and the Corn Laws. Emmeline's mother was ...
This is a preview of the whole essay
In 1921 Christabel went to live in the United States where she became a prominent member of Second Adventist movement. Christabel lectured and wrote books on the Second Coming. Christabel returned to Britain in the 1930s but left for the USA at the start of the Second World War. Christabel Pankhurst died in the USA in 1958.
Emmeline Pankhurst, the daughter of Robert Goulden and Sophia Crane, was born in Manchester in 1858. Her father was successful businessman with radical political beliefs. Goulden took part in the campaigns against slavery and the Corn Laws. Emmeline's mother was a passionate feminist and started taking her daughter to women's suffrage meetings in the early 1870s.
Robert and Sophia Goulden had conventional ideas about education and after a short spell at a school in Manchester, Emmeline was sent to a finishing school in Paris at the age of fifteen.
Soon after Emmeline returned to Manchester in 1878, she met the lawyer, Richard Pankhurst. A committed socialist, Richard was also a strong advocate of women's suffrage. Richard had been responsible for drafting an amendment to the Municipal Franchise Act of 1869 that had resulted in unmarried women householders being allowed to vote in local elections. Richard had served on the Married Women's Property Committee (1868-1870) and was the main person responsible for the drafting of the women's property bill that was passed by Parliament in 1870.
Richard and Emmeline were immediately attracted to each other and although there was a significant age difference, he was forty-four and she was only twenty, Richard Goulden gave permission for the marriage to take place. Emmeline had four children in the first six years of marriage: Christabel Pankhurst (1880), Sylvia Pankhurst (1882), Frank (1884) and Adela (1885). During these years Richard and Emmeline continued their involvement in the struggle for women's rights and in 1889 helped form the pressure group, the Women's Franchise League.
Emmeline continued her involvement in politics but she grew gradually disillusioned with the existing women's political organizations and in 1903 she founded the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU). At first Emmeline intended that the main aim of the organisation was to recruit working class women into the struggle for the vote.
By 1905 the media had lost interest in the struggle for women's rights. Newspapers rarely reported meetings and usually refused to publish articles and letters written by supporters of women's suffrage. In 1905 the WSPU decided to use different methods to obtain the publicity they thought would be needed in order to obtain the vote.
On 13th October 1905, Christabel Pankhurst and Annie Kenney attended a meeting in London to hear Sir Edward Grey, a minister in the British government. When Grey was talking, the two women constantly shouted out, "Will the Liberal Government give votes to women?" When the women refused to stop shouting the police were called to evict them from the meeting. Pankhurst and Kenney refused to leave and during the struggle a policeman claimed the two women kicked and spat at him. Pankhurst and Kenney were arrested and charged with assault.
Christabel Pankhurst and Annie Kenney were found guilty of assault and fined five shillings each. When the women refused to pay the fine they were sent to prison. The case shocked the nation. For the first time in Britain women had used violence in an attempt to win the vote.
In 1907 Emmeline moved to London and joined her two daughters in the militant struggle for the vote. For the next seven years she was imprisoned repeatedly. Now in her fifties, Emmeline's actions inspired many other women to follow her example of committing acts of civil disobedience. In one eighteen month period, she endured ten hunger-strikes.
The Women's Party also supported: "equal pay for equal work, equal marriage and divorce laws, the same rights over children for both parents, equality of rights and opportunities in public service, and a system of maternity benefits." Christabel and Emmeline had now completely abandoned their earlier socialist beliefs and advocated policies such as the abolition of the trade unions.
After the First World War Emmeline spent several years in the USA and Canada lecturing for the National Council for Combating Venereal Disease. When Emmeline returned to Britain in 1925 she joined the Conservative Party and was adopted as one of their candidates in the East End of London. Sylvia Pankhurst, who still held her strong socialist views, was appalled by this decision. Emmeline's was also angry with Sylvia for having an illegitimate baby and refused to see her daughter or grandson. Emmeline Pankhurst died in 1928.
Sylvia Pankhurst, the daughter of Dr. Richard Pankhurst and Emmeline Pankhurst, was born in Manchester in 1882. Sylvia had been very close to her father and never really got over his death. Unlike her mother and sister, Sylvia retained the socialist beliefs that had been taught to her by her father when she was a child.
Christabel attended Manchester High School and in 1900 won a scholarship to the Royal College of Art in South Kensington. Although a committed artist, Sylvia began spending more and more time working for the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) that had been founded by her mother in 1903.
Sylvia was also very active in the Labour Party and became a close friend of Keir Hardie, the leader of the party in the House of Commons. In 1906 Sylvia gave up her studies at the Royal College of Art and worked full-time for the WSPU. Later that year she served the first of many periods in prison for her activities. Sylvia also endured several hunger strikes.
Sylvia was a talented writer and in 1911 her book The History of the Women's Suffrage Movement was published. However, Sylvia was unhappy that the WSPU had abandoned its earlier commitment to socialism and disagreed with Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst's attempts to gain middle class support by arguing in favour of a limited franchise.
Sylvia Pankhurst's final break with the WSPU came in 1912 when the movement adopted a policy of widespread arson. Sylvia now concentrated her efforts on helping the Labour Party build up its support in London. This included the production of a weekly paper for working-class women called The Women's Dreadnought.
The outbreak of the First World War caused further conflict between Sylvia and the WSPU. Sylvia was a pacifist and disagreed with the WSPU's strong support for the war. Sylvia Pankhurst joined with Charlotte Despard to form the Women's Peace Army, an organisation that demanded a negotiated peace.
Sylvia Pankhurst was a supporter of the Russian Revolution in 1917 and visited the country where she met Lenin and ended up arguing with him over the issue of censorship. The government disliked Sylvia's pro-Communist articles in her newspaper and she was imprisoned for five months for sedition.
At the end of the war Sylvia began living with Silvo Corio, an Italian socialist. In 1927 their child, Richard Pankhurst, was born. Sylvia upset her mother by refusing to marry the boy's father. Sylvia was totally opposed to signing a marriage contract or taking a man's name.
Sylvia remained active in politics throughout her life. In the 1930s she supported the republicans in Spain, helped Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany and led the campaign against the Italian occupation of Ethiopia. After the Second World War Sylvia Pankhurst moved to Ethiopia where she lived until her death in 1960.
WSPU,During the summer of 1908 the WSPU introduced the tactic of breaking the windows of government buildings. On 30th June suffragettes marched into Downing Street and began throwing small stones through the windows of the Prime Minister's house. As a result of this demonstration, twenty-seven women were arrested and sent to Holloway Prison.
On the 13th October, 1908 the WSPU held a large demonstration in London and then tried to enter the House of Commons. There were violent clashes with the police and 24 women were arrested, including Emmeline Pankhurst, who was sentenced to three months in prison.
In July, 1909, an imprisoned suffragette, Marion Dunlop, refused to eat. Afraid that she might die and become a martyr, it was decided to release her. Soon afterwards other imprisoned suffragettes adopted the same strategy. Unwilling to release all the imprisoned suffragettes, the prison authorities force-fed these women on hunger strike. In one eighteen month period, Emmeline Pankhurst, who was now in her fifties, endured ten of these hunger-strikes.
The summer of 1913 saw a further escalation of WSPU violence. In July attempts were made by suffragettes to burn down the houses of two members of the government who opposed women having the vote. These attempts failed but soon afterwards, a house being built for David Lloyd George, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, was badly damaged by suffragettes. This was followed by cricket pavilions, racecourse stands and golf clubhouses being set on fire. Some leaders of the WSPU such as Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence, disagreed with this arson campaign. When Pethick-Lawrence objected, she was expelled from the organisation. Others like Elizabeth Robins showed their disapproval by ceasing to be active in the WSPU.
In 1913 the WSPU increased its campaign to destroy public and private property. The women responsible were often caught and once in prison they went on hunger strike. Determined to avoid these women becoming martyrs, the government introduced the Prisoner's Temporary Discharge of Ill Health Act. Suffragettes were now allowed to go on hunger strike but as soon as they became ill they were released. Once the women had recovered, the police re-arrested them and returned them to prison where they completed their sentences. This successful means of dealing with hunger strikes became known as the Cat and Mouse Act.
By the summer of 1914 over 1,000 suffragettes had been imprisoned for destroying public property. All the leading members of the WSPU were in prison, in very poor health or were living in exile. The number of active members of the organisation in a position to commit acts of violence was now very small.
On 4th August, 1914, England declared war on Germany. Two days later the NUWSS announced that it was suspending all political activity until the war was over. The leadership of the WSPU began negotiating with the British government. On the 10th August the government announced it was releasing all suffragettes from prison. In return, the WSPU agreed to end their militant activities and help the war effort.
The Labour party, it was in the period 1903-1914 that the labour party emerged as a force in British politics. Although it might be expected that the new party and the woman's suffrage movement would have been natural allies, martin Pugh points out that this was not the case. The only group within the party to support and promote women's suffrage was the independent labour party.
Negative reaction to the suffrage campaign some leading members of the early labour party were hostile to suffragists were campaigning for equal franchise rather than for universal franchise. Socialists who did not believe in property qualifications were suspicious of the campaign that was led by middle class women who had little in common with, and little apparent interest in, working class men. Indeed some suffragists argued that they should have the vote on the grounds that they were superior to members of the working class. As a result women suffrage was dismissed as a middle class concern or as something that would be achieved as a matter of course once socialism was introduced.
Positive reaction to the suffrage campaigns, on the other hand, some leading members of the labour party war close supporters of the suffragists and reacted positively to militancy. Keir Hardie, for example was close to the Pankhursts and supported the militant campaign: according to Sylvia Pankhurst, he collected funds, wrote leaflets, taught the suffragettes parliamentary procedure, introduced them to influential people visited them in prison and even condoned their violent tactics.
In 1912 Lansbury proposed that labour MP's vote against the government on all bills until a woman's suffrage bill was passed. He then resigned his seat hoping to gain the backing of local electorate for his pro suffragist stance. Despite, or because of, support in the by-election campaign from the NUWSS and the WSPU, he lost.
