Emmeline Pankhurst Women's Suffrage

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Emmeline Pankhurst, a British political activist, was very involved in women’s rights at the time. As a Leader of British suffragette movement, Pankhurst helped women gain the right to vote, as she was introduced to the concept of women’s suffrage at an early age in her life (“Emmeline Pankhurst”). She then went on and founded the Women’s Franchise League, as she thoroughly “advocated suffrage for married and unmarried women” (“Emmeline Pankhurst”). After the passing of her husband, Pankhurst founded a new organization in order to continue her fight for the freedom of women. She created the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU), an “all-women suffrage advocacy organization dedicated to deeds, not words” (“Emmeline Pankhurst”). Her group …show more content…

At this time, women were fighting for their right and ability to vote. Men were able to vote because of their violent nature, while women were unable to vote because “they were constitutional and law-abiding” (Pankhurst 285). As “women had lost heart”, there was little being done about their rights, resulting in two women, both members of Pankhurst’s organization, speaking out against the Liberal leader asking when women were going to be able to vote (Pankhurst 285). Without sitting down until they were answered, the women were jailed, and from then on, the women’s movement for a change in voting rights has been militant and constitutional. The women were “fighting to get the power to alter bad laws”, but due to the little rights that they had, not much was done to accommodate their need. Pankhurst continues to provide examples in which women had little say, such as divorce rights between men and women. Men are allowed to bring mistresses into their homes to live with them, but the women are unable to divorce the men for this action. Also, the women have to endure childbirth, but do not have the parental rights to help with the future of their child. Similar to today, Pankhurst discusses the topic of men and women’s job wage gap. She goes on to highlight how “men think [women] are superhuman; they put …show more content…

Before reading, I knew very little information about women’s suffrage and what women did to fight for their rights. I now know that women created and founded organizations to promote women’s suffrage and advocated to gain favor and encouragement from the people as a whole. Personally, I found it interesting that they used divorce rights as an example to compare women’s and men’s right to one another. With the authority that men have to bring women other than their wives into their homes as their mistress without being punished surprises me. Women do not have the right to divorce their husbands, so these acts that they do provide their wives with little options. I admire the courage that these women had to stand up in front of people to fight for not only their rights, but all of the women in the world. As she fought for women to be treated equal to men, women continue fighting for the same reason today. With the wage gaps between men and women, there are women fighting for the equal pay that they believe they deserve today. Emmeline Pankhurst is an inspirational women as she has shown how to fight for what you believe in. Lastly, through this speech, I have learned the great determination and strength that Pankhurst used to stand up for her rights, and I strongly applaud what she has

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