British suffragist Emmeline (Goulden) Pankhurst was born in Manchester on July 14, 1858, to a Sylvia Crane and Robert Goulden, a successful manufacturer. The Gouldens were active in feminism, the abolition of slavery and other then-radical causes of the day.

As a young child, Emmeline heard abolitionist and suffragist Elizabeth Cady Stanton speak. Her childhood reading included abolitionist books and materials, and her father encouraged the Victorian custom of putting on homemade plays and skits. Emmeline was well groomed for activist leadership.

Emmeline Goulden met Socialist lawyer Richard Marsden Pankhurst shortly after her return to Manchester from her Paris finishing school in 1878. Twenty-two years older than Emmeline, Richard Pankhurst was a staunch and effective advocate for women's rights and suffrage. Richard authored the Municipal Franchise Act (1869) which allowed unmarried women householders to vote in local elections, and he was the principal drafter of Great Britain's first Married Women's Property Act, which, after much watering down beyond his control, passed in Parliament in 1870. (He later wrote the stronger Married Women's Property Act, which passed in 1882.)

Emmeline and Richard married in 1879, and had five children: Christabel, Sylvia, Frank, Adela and Harry.

The Pankhursts were active members of the Independent Labour Party, and started a local Party chapter, with Richard making several unsuccessful runs for office. In 1889, Emmeline and Richard created the Women's Franchise League. Emmeline became a Poor Law Guardian in 1893, a role that involved regular visits to women in the local workhouse, where she grew appalled at the conditions she witnessed.

The Pankhursts remained devoted to each other and to their causes until Richard's death in 1898.

Richard Pankhurst died in 1898, and a deeply grieving Emmeline retreated into private life.

But her retreat did not last long, for Emmeline and her daughters, Christabel and Sylvia, grew frustrated by the lack of progress made by the prominent suffragist coalition of the day, the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS). In an attempt to recruit working-class women to the suffrage movement, the Pankhurst women founded the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) in October 1903.

But politicians and the press continued to ignore suffragist efforts. By 1905, the WSPU turned to more militant means to call attention to their cause. In October 1905, Christabel Pankhurst and fellow suffragist Annie Kenney attended a speech by government minister Sir Edward Grey, during which Pankhurst and Kenney shouted repeatedly, ignoring all calls to stop. The pair was arrested, refused to pay the imposed fine, and spent a short stay in prison.

On June 30, 1908, WSPU members threw small stones to break windows at the Prime Minister's residence and other government buildings, resulting in the arrest and imprisonment of 27 demonstrators. On October 13, 1908, Emmeline and 23 other women were arrested in a large London demonstration when protesters tried to enter the House of Commons. Emmeline spent three months in prison.

By 1909, WSPU had indeed gained attention, and their actions inspired a new term, "suffragette." Reactions from the more temperate NUWSS were mixed, with some appreciating the increase in awareness, and others decrying the methods used to gain it.

Emmeline was arrested, imprisoned, and went on hunger-strikes on numerous occasions between 1909 and 1913.

A Patriotic Pause

WSPU's violent actions continued, escalating into arson by the summer of 1914. Then, on August 4, 1914, England declared war on Germany. NUWSS quickly informed the government that they would cease all political action and join in the war effort. WSPU agreed to do the same, after successfully negotiating with the government to release all of WSPU's approximately 1,000 imprisoned activists.

WSPU's wartime demonstrations were funded by the government, and if non-violent, they were every bit as fervent in their patriotism as they had once been in the cause of women's suffrage. Not all suffragists shared this pro-war stance, however.

Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst's political views grew increasingly conservative, going so far as to advocate the abolition of trade unions. Even so, they did not abandon feminism. In 1917, mother and daughter formed the Women's Party, dedicated to the destruction of Germany's Hapsburg Empire and to equality between men and women.

After the War

Emmeline toured the U.S. and Canada giving lectures on behalf of the National Council for Combatting Venereal Disease. After her return to England in 1925, Emmeline joined the Conservative Party and made an unsuccessful run for office, much to the dismay of her daughter Sylvia, who had adhered to her Socialist roots. As a result of this and other family disputes, Emmeline and Sylvia became permanently estranged.

In 1918, Parliament passed the People's Representation Act, which granted suffrage to property-owning women over 30. Nancy Astor became the first woman Member of Parliament in 1919.

Emmeline Goulden Pankhurst died on June 14, 1928, exactly one month before her 70th birthday. Parliament finally granted full women's suffrage on July 2, 1928.