Emmeline Pankhurst: Women's Rights Activist

Emmeline Pankhurst was born in Moss Side, Manchester. She was born to Robert and Sophia Goulden, and she was the eldest daughter of ten children(Painter). Her birth records say she was born on July 15, 1858, but she claims to be born on July 14, Bastille Day. To many people, Bastille Day represents equality and resonance, which is what she wanted to achieve with the women’s rights movement(Smith). Her ideas were most likely influenced by her parents, who had radical political beliefs. It is believed that Emmeline went to her first suffrage meeting at the age of eight(Painter). She was sent to a finishing school in France called Ecole Normale Superieuve. In the finishing school, she was taught usual subjects for girls, and was also taught subjects taught only taught for men, but her instructors believed that

The consequences usually meant imprisonment. The imprisonment led to hunger and thirst strikes led by Emmeline Pankhurst. Pankhurst was arrested at least six times during 1908 and 1912(“Emmeline Pankhurst”). She was finally sent to Holloway Prison, which led to her protesting the conditions by going on hunger and thirst strikes. Eventually the government got irritated at her hunger and thirst strikes, which resorted in the government ordering inmates who resisted the food and water to be force fed. This meant women had to be restrained while a rubber tube was forced down their noses or throats, and a liquid was poured into it to give them nutrients. Many women, including Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters, were put through this torturous treatment(Painter). When WWI came in 1914, Emmeline called a truce between the government and the WPSU, the government then proceeded to release suffragettes from prison(Smith). Emmeline then proceeded to encourage women to take up men’s jobs and jobs in factories. In support of the war, they were no longer a militant group, but they had become a patriotic