Emmeline Pankhurst

Profession: Suffragette

Nationality:

Biography: Pankhurst was the leader of Britain's suffragette movement, who founded the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) in 1903.

Seeking to enfranchise women, members of this organization gained notoriety through the militant tactics they commonly employed to agitate for women's suffrage. Pankhurst defended these actions on the grounds that:

“The condition of our sex is so deplorable that it is our duty to break the law in order to call attention to the reasons why we do.”

Some degree of success was achieved in 1918 when British women were granted limited suffrage, but it was only in the year of her death in 1928 that women were granted full voting rights.

Born: July 15, 1858
Birthplace: Moss Side, Manchester, England
Star Sign: Cancer

Died: June 14, 1928 (aged 69)
Cause of Death: Illness