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Emmeline Pankhurst
Origin: Manchester, England
(14 July 1858 – 14 June 1928)
Heroic Values: Achievement, Caring, Courage, Faith, Integrity, Perseverance, Selflessness, Tolerance, Vision, Wisdom
Background
Emmeline Goulden was born to a Manchester manufacturer who promoted the abolition of slavery. She read his books and essays as well as listened to numerous speeches. As a child she heard Elizabeth Cady Stanton speak about the rights of women. As an adult she married a lawyer, John Pankhurst, who had written the first women's suffrage bill in Britain.As Mrs. Pankhurst, Emmeline became active in women's rights. She formed the Women's Franchise League with her daughters, Slyvia and Christabel. The group was successful in securing the vote for women in local elections, but when her husband died in 1898 Mrs. Pankhurst and her daughters formed a new group, the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU). With the new group came new tactics. More militant and violent, the women involved with the group began to be imprisoned for breaking windows and other minor offences. As a show of resistance, many of the imprisoned began hunger strikes. Emmeline Pankhurst was sent to prison many times during those years.
When World War I began Pankhurst called for a stop to the violence and started campaigning for women to take the jobs of the men who had left for war. She wanted to show support for the troops while also showing that women were more than capable of doing the work. After years of dedicated work, women were finally given full voting rights the same year Emmeline Pankhurst died.
Sources
Wikipedia
The online encyclopedia
The Time 100
Pankhurst's entry
About.com
Women's history page