An Analysis of the Achievements and Significance of Emmeline Pankhurst - Report Example

An analysis of the achievements and significance of Emmeline Pankhurst. Emmeline Pankhurst was both a trailblazer and a maverick. A towering figurein the history of modern feminism, Emmeline Pankhurst (born Emmeline Goulden), was one of the most important advocates for women’s rights in the twentieth century. As the foremost proponent of women’s suffrage in the United Kingdom, Emmeline Pankhurst will forever be associated with the struggle for legal equality and women’s challenges in earning the right to vote. She and took on institutionalized discrimination within British society and fought prejudice at a time when many thought that a woman’s place was in the household. Emmeline Pankhurst fought hard for what she believed in and has left an indelible imprint on British society. This brief biographical essay will begin with an overview of Emmeline Pankhurst’s upbringing and early years growing up as a young woman in the ninetieth century. Born more than 150 years ago Emmeline Pankhurst fought for women’s rights and challenged the preconceived beliefs that shaped her society. She was visionary who believed in the power of equality and held the revolutionary ideal that men and women were equal. This is her story (BBC, 2010). As arguably the most important British political activist of her generation, Emmeline Pankhurst was the voice of the British suffragette (a woman seeking the right to vote) movement and singlehandedly publicized the inherent inequalities pervasive in British society at the time. Growing up as a young girl in a politically-minded household, Emmeline Pankhurst challenged the view that she should grow up in a society in which women were denied the right to vote. Accordingly, she felt that men and women were equal and should be recognised as such before the law. Educated in France and destined for life as a housewife and mother, Emmeline Pankhurst married lawyer Richard Pankhurst – a lawyer known for his support of the women’s suffrage movement – and began to vocally challenge the inequalities found in a society in which women were denied the right to vote (Holton, 1996; Marcus, 1987). As a wife, mother and British citizen yet someone who was denied the right to vote in her own country, Emmeline Pankhurst joined the Women’s Franchise League and advocated for women’s right to vote. While she sought membership in the Independent Labour Party – her membership was actually denied because she was a woman - Emmeline Pankhurst established her own political organization, the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU), which at its time was one of the most vocal and controversial wings in the fight for gender equality in the United Kingdom. Utilizing a variety of tactics to ensure that their voices were heard, including arson, vandalism and highly publicized hunger strikes, Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughter Christabel held the reigns of this organization and grew it tremendously, following the death of Emmeline’s husband, Richard Pankhurst. She was arrested on various occasions and was a controversial figure in the United Kingdom at the time. During World War One, a halt to the militancy of the WSPU was called as the feminists rallied to their government and sought to support the British authorities in their global challenges. Accordingly, in 1918, the British authorities established the Representation of People Act which gave women the restricted right to vote after the age of 30. While a victory for Pankhurst and the movement that she led, this legislative victory was an incomplete success (Kamm, 1961). Touring the world, seeking to spread her gospel of gender equality and the need for female emancipation in the United Kingdom and its dominions, Pankhurst brought her fiery rhetoric to the Americas wowing audiences in both Canada and the United States. Settling in Canada, Pankhurst aimed to achieve global rights for women and tirelessly worked to promote gender equality on both sides of the Atlantic. Anti-communist and decidedly pro-British, Emmeline Pankhurst shocked supporters, when upon her return to the United Kingdom, she joined the Conservative Party of Britain and ran as a candidate for Parliament. Although formerly a vocal critic of conservatism, Pankhurst joined the Party prior to her death. She died in 1928, and that same year, women were given the fully qualified right to vote at the age of 21 – just like men – through the Representation of the People Act 1928 (Liddington, 1978; Bartley 2002). Conclusion An energetic humanist with a strong sense of duty and purpose, Emmeline Prankhurst will be forever remembered as a remarkable woman who worked for the betterment of humanity. She believed in gender equality and devoted her life to it. Through arrests, imprisonment and hunger strikes, she personified the plight of women throughout the United Kingdom and the rest of the English-speaking world. Always controversial but a true leader with a plan to fundamentally transform gender relations in the United Kingdom, Emmeline Prankhurst will forever be remembered as one of the most important women of her generation. According to its ranking of Emmeline Prankhurst in 1999 as one of the 100 most important people of the past millennium, Time magazine explored both her tactics and her legacy on British society: Not even the noisiest proponents of womens proper place back in the home could seriously suggest today that women should not have the vote. Yet "the mother half of the human family," in Emmeline Pankhursts phrase, was fully enfranchised only in this century. In Britain, so proud to claim "the Mother of Parliaments," universal suffrage — including womens — was granted only in the year of her death, 1928. Mrs. Pankhurst was born a Victorian Englishwoman, but she shaped an idea of women for our time; she shook society into a new pattern from which there could be no going back (Time, 1999). Time magazine immortalized the legacy of a woman who deserves respect for the strength that it took to challenge the social mores of her time. Understanding that women should be equal with men in British society and that full social equality would be impossible without legislative equality in the judicial realm, Emmeline Pankhurst was a true maverick who achieved results. The quote above is a fitting tribute to a remarkable woman whose legacy continues to be felt in the United Kingdom and around the world today (Bartley, 2002). REFERENCES “Emmeline Pankhurst “. (1999). Time Magazine, Last Accessed 17 January 2010 http://www.yachtingnet.com/time/time100/heroes/profile/pankhurst01.html “Emmeline Pankhurst (1858-1828)“. (2010). British Broadcasting Corporation, Last Accessed 17 January 2010 http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/pankhurst_emmeline.shtml Bartley, P. (2002). Emmeline Pankhurst. London: Routledge. Holton, S.S. (1996). Suffrage Days. London: Routledge. Kamm, J. (1961). The Story of Mrs. Pankhurst. London: Methuen. Liddington, J. (1978). One Hand Tied Behind Us: The Rise of the Womens Suffrage Movement. London: Virago. Marcus, J. (1987). Suffrage and the Pankhursts. London: Routledge. Read More