Emmeline Pankhurst

Emmeline Pankhurst's autobiography gives the reader an insight into the struggle to get votes for women. The biography does not hold back on details of the appalling treatment that suffragettes endured from the authorities. The book contains the 16 photographs from the original 1914 publication with three others. The text is annotated by the publisher with short footnotes giving explanations of terms and descriptions of the people mentioned. There is an introduction by Lesley Gray giving an overview of the suffragette struggle.

The great leader of the womenâ??s suffrage movement tells the story of her struggles in her own words. Emmeline Pankhurst grew up all too aware of the prevailing attitude of her day: that men were considered superior to women.

In 1903, five years after her husband died, Pankhurst founded the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), an all-women suffrage advocacy organization dedicated to "deeds, not words." The group identified as independent from - and often in opposition to - political parties. It became known for physical confrontations: its members smashed windows and assaulted police officers. Pankhurst, her daughters, and other WSPU activists were sentenced to repeated prison sentences, where they staged hunger strikes to secure better conditions. As Pankhurst's eldest daughter Christabel took leadership of the WSPU, antagonism between the group and the government grew. Eventually the group adopted arson as a tactic, and more moderate organisations spoke out against the Pankhurst family. In 1913 several prominent individuals left the WSPU, among them Pankhurst's daughters Adela and Sylvia. Emmeline was so furious that she "gave Adela] a ticket, 20, and a letter of introduction to a suffragette in Australia, and firmly insisted that she emigrate," in which she complied. The family rift was never healed. Sylvia became a socialist. This is an autobiography of one of the great women of history.

Don't miss Meryl Streep as Emmeline Pankhurst in the major motion picture Suffragette. Emmeline Pankhurst grew up all too aware of the prevailing attitude of her day: that men were considered superior to women.