Emmeline Pankhurst

Emmeline Pankhurst (1858–1928), born Emmeline Goulden in Manchester, was the leader of the militant campaign for women's suffrage in Britain. Married to the radical barrister Richard Pankhurst, she founded the Women's Social and Political Union in 1903 with her daughters Christabel and Sylvia, under the motto Deeds, Not Words. Its members heckled ministers, smashed windows, went on hunger strike and endured forcible feeding; Pankhurst herself was imprisoned repeatedly. She suspended the campaign to support the war effort in 1914, and women over thirty won the vote in 1918. My Own Story, published in 1914, is her account of the struggle.