Emmeline Pankhurst: A Truly Fiery Revolutionary
- Naina K.
- Aug 15, 2025
- 3 min read
The radical revolutionary of England, Emmeline Pankhurst was the roaring wave of feminism needed to knock Britain into shape. Emmeline Pankhurst is probably best known for founding the Women’s Social and Political Union, which led the charge (literally) to help women gain voting rights. From committing arson to being arrested, Pankhurst was truly a jack of all trades. Though, who was Pankhurst, really?
Born Emmeline Goulden in Manchester on 15 July 1858, she came out of the womb as a protester. She even protested her own birthday, claiming that she was born on the 14th of July (Bastille Day) despite what her birth certificate says. Her family was politically active: her grandmother worked with the Anti-Corn Law League, her mother, Sophia, came from the Isle of Man, and her father, Robert Goulden, served for several years on the Salford town council. Robert also owned a small theater where he played the lead roles in some Shakespearean plays, which influenced the young Emmeline as she learned to appreciate theatre (which influenced her revolutionary career). Emmeline was gifted–she was reading on her own very early, even reading The Odyssey at nine. She actually said that a source of inspiration was Thomas Carlyle’s The French Revolution: A History.
Despite her parents' political and educational approach, they did have different expectations for their daughters. The Gouldens expected that their daughters would marry early rather than work. As a result, Emmeline’s education differed from her brothers’. While they did support women' s suffrage, they believed that their daughters were not as capable as their sons and other men. Though, they were still the spark of Emmeline’s interest in women’s suffrage. Emmeline read the Women’s Suffrage Journal that her mother had, and attended a meeting about women’s voting rights at 14 after learning that the Journal’s editor would be speaking.
The 21 year-old Emmeline married Richard Pankhurst in December of 1879, which was fitting, as Richard was an advocate for women’s suffrage. Her and her husband were of the opinion that Emmeline should not simply remain in the home; while she tended to the children, she also remained politically active, becoming a member of the Women’s Suffrage Society. After the Society split, rather than choose a faction, Emmeline and her husband founded the Women’s Franchise League in 1889. The WFL was considered extremely left for also wanting equal rights in terms of inheritance and divorce, and as a result, the conservative branch of the NSWS got into an argument with the WFL over their radicalism. This radicalism did cause some members to leave though, and the group soon fell apart.
Emmeline’s husband developed a gastric ulcer and passed in 1898. Emmeline was left to raise their four children alone, and her children also took an interest in women’s suffrage. Her daughter Christabel, in particular, worked with the WSPU. The WSPU was founded in October of 1903, and only women could join. Originally, the group was non-violent. They stuck to rallies, speeches, petitions, and newsletters. Their first brush with the law was in 1905, when a suffrage bill was filibustered, and the WSPU began a raucous protest outside Parliament. Though the bill was not passed and the police forced them away, Emmeline was happy that they were being acknowledged as a political force. After that, the WSPU’s history with militancy only grew. From throwing rocks to hunger strikes to property destruction, the WSPU’s militancy finally culminated in arson. The women of the WSPU set fire to pillar boxes, gardens, railway carriages, and buildings. Emmeline endorsed all of this, hallmarking her in history as the women’s arsonist. While her later life was less extreme due to WW1, she still would go down in history as Britain’s suffragette.
Emmeline Pankhurst died at the age of 69 in June of 1928, and her efforts came to fruition only weeks after her death, when the Equal Franchise Act was passed and women gained full voting rights. Her funeral gained international attention for her efforts in suffrage, and one of her bodyguards, Catherine Marshall, erected a statue of her in Victoria Tower Gardens. It gestured to the House of Parliament, just as Emmeline did when she was alive.
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. "Emmeline Pankhurst". Encyclopedia Britannica, 11 Jul. 2025, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Emmeline-Pankhurst. Accessed 25 July 2025.