Pankhurst was born in Manchester on July 15, 1858. But she later refused to acknowledge this date of birth, insisting that she was born on July 14th. Because July 14th was the day the French Revolution stormed the Bastille. Pankhurst wanted to make her birthday more "revolutionary" to show that she was born to be a "revolutionary". She said in 1908: "I always feel that the fact that I was born on that day has some influence on my life!"
In fact, her "revolutionary" It has nothing to do with the day she was born, but the family environment in which she grew up. In her family, generations on both sides of the family have been interested in politics. Her mother is from the Isle of Man, a small island between England and Ireland, literally translated as "Isle of Men." Legend has it that the earliest developers on the island were all men, hence the name. Although this small island belongs to the United Kingdom, it has its own country name and flag. Except for military and diplomatic affairs, it is almost completely independent and has its own set of political systems. What particularly affected Pankhurst was that the Isle of Man was established as early as 1881. Years later, women were given the right to vote in national elections! There are two famous "monsters" on the island, one is the "tailless cat" and the other is the "four-horned sheep". In the eyes of the Liberals around 1910, there was also a "weirdo" on this island, and that was Pankhurst.
Pankhurst herself was not born on the Isle of Man, but on the outskirts of Manchester. Her father was a small businessman in Manchester, but he was also very enthusiastic about politics. He also opened a small theater of his own and acted in roles himself. It is said that Pankhurst's later "acting talent" came from her father. However, the biggest influence on her was her mother. The enlightenment book her mother used for her 10 children was "Uncle Tom's Cabin", which had a great influence on the American abolition movement. Because she was closely related to the American abolition movement. have close contact. When Pankhurst was a child, he also participated in fund-raising activities for the liberation of American slaves.
By the time Pankhurst could read herself, her favorite book was "The Pilgrim's Progress" by the persecuted Protestant minister "John Bunyan", which was a best-selling book in the West. An inspirational work second only to the Bible. Another book she liked was Carlyle's History of the French Revolution. Her mother often read a magazine called "Women's Suffrage", and Pankhurst also often read it, and gradually fell in love with the magazine's editor "Lydia Baker". When she was 14, she heard that her mother was going to a rally about women's suffrage and that Baker was going to speak at the meeting, so she insisted on going along. She later recalled that after listening to the speech, "When I left the venue, I became a conscious and determined suffragist!"
From then on, Pankhurst became a She was very enthusiastic about politics and was mainly dedicated to the women's suffrage movement. But at that time she was not called "Pankhurst", but "Emily Gorton" ("Gorton" was her father's surname). Until 1878, she met a man named "Richard Pankhurst", a man 22 years older than her. This was a lawyer but a long-time advocate for women's suffrage. The two were like-minded, and although they were very different in age, they quickly came together. Although they gave birth to 5 children in 10 years, Richard believed that she should not just be a housewife. To this end, they hired a nanny to take care of the children, and Pankhurst himself participated in an activity called the "Women's Suffrage Association." Among their five children, two boys died in infancy or early death, and only three daughters were full of personality and famous, bringing glory or "humiliation" to Pankhurst. Richard died in Manchester in 1898. Pankhurst, who lost her husband, had to temporarily stop participating in voluntary activities for women's suffrage and find a job to support her family. She found work as a registrar of births and deaths in Chorlton, Manchester. But ambitious people can find things to do related to their ambitions no matter where they go. When Pankhurst was working as a "Registrar of Births and Deaths", he more truly observed the misfortune of lower-class women. For example, those young mothers have to bear the shame of having children "out of wedlock" alone, while the men involved act like nothing is wrong.
It is said that this phenomenon belongs to the category of social morality and should change people's ideas. But for Pankhurst, who had always been at the forefront of women's suffrage, this strengthened her belief: Only when women gain the right to vote can they change their current situation.
Fortunately, after her husband passed away, her children were almost adults, which relieved some of her burden. The eldest daughter "Crisbell" soon became a good helper in her political activities. By 1903, Pankhurst believed that the years of women's suffrage activities had not made much progress in Parliament. Relevant bills had been hoped to be passed in Parliament in 1870, 1886, and 1897, but in the end they all failed. . She felt that drastic measures should be taken to achieve her goal. As a result, she and several allies launched the "Women's Social and Political Alliance", an organization only for women and dedicated to fighting for women's voting rights through direct action. She summarized the purpose of this organization in her later recall article: "Actions, not words, are our eternal motto!"
The action really started! Initially, however, they limited themselves to public speaking and collecting petition signatures. What is more eye-catching is that they established a "Women's Parliament". When the Congress was in session, they also held meetings and acted against the Congress. When a women's suffrage bill was blocked in Parliament on May 12, 1905, they began to gather outside the Capitol and protest loudly. The police immediately dispersed them, but they gathered again and insisted on passing the bill. Although the bill ultimately failed to pass, the conflict made Pankhurst realize that after all we were noticed and had become a "political force," so to speak.
After this, "noisy" protest became a strategy for Pankhurst. All three of her daughters were arrested for this, and she was arrested for the first time in February 1908 for trying to storm into Parliament and submit a protest decision to Prime Minister Asquith. She was sentenced to six weeks in prison for "obstructing official duties". Although she constantly complained about the harsh conditions in prison, including "parasites, poor food, terrible silence", she realized that being incarcerated could be used as a good way to promote the urgency of women's suffrage. tool"! So, in 1909, she deliberately punched a policeman in the face twice to ensure she would be arrested. She was arrested many times in one year, with the most being 12 times in a year. But once she was arrested, her popularity increased. She also used the court where she was tried as a "preaching stage." During her trial in 1908, she made a wise remark to the court: "We are not here (on trial) because we are law-breakers; we are here (on trial) only because we are trying to be law-breakers. Law-makers!”
Later, Pankhurst’s strategy was close to “crazy”: no matter which political party it was, as long as it did not prioritize the issue of women’s suffrage, “Women’s Social and Political Alliance" people opposed it. Especially during the election campaign, they go to the campaign site to "make a scene". This strategy first caused the Liberal Party to break with them - many Liberals originally supported women's suffrage, but because they did not make the issue of women's suffrage the first issue in the campaign, they were attacked. However, it is the Liberal candidate who is most unlucky about this break. It is said that Churchill once failed in an election because "those women burst into laughter from time to time" during his speech, which greatly reduced the effectiveness of the eloquent Churchill's speech! Therefore, after Churchill became the "Minister of the Interior", he suppressed these women who were striving for political suffrage particularly fiercely. Sometimes women also suffer during riots. Once when Pankhurst and the others went to make a riot, they were attacked by some Liberal Party supporters with clods of earth, rotten eggs and stones. Pankhurst's ankle was severely bruised and he suffered serious injuries. .
Finally, the conflict escalated. Women used rocks to break the windows of the Prime Minister's Office, painted slogans on the walls of the Houses of Parliament, and went to art galleries in Manchester and other places to destroy famous paintings.
In 1912, when Prime Minister Asquith visited the Theater Royal in Dublin, some "fighting women" tried to explode with dynamite! At the same time, some other "fighting women" threw an ax into Prime Minister Asquith's car! They also set fires in some parks, train stations and other places, or threw acid at places where congressmen played golf... On June 4, 1913, a "combatant woman" named "Emily Davidson", When the king was touring the "Derby", he rushed to King George V's horse race, lay down on his own accord, and was trampled to death by the horse. This caused a huge shock in the society!
The terrorist acts of "combat women" have attracted great criticism. However, the issue of women's suffrage has indeed aroused widespread social attention, and some people even expressed sympathy for these "fighting women". Some women were imprisoned and went on hunger strikes. The prison authorities force-fed them, using metal tools to pry their mouths open. Pankhurst said that "the screams of the inmates in the next cell" made her shudder for many years. ——When she was about to be force-fed, she held up a water bottle with both hands and threatened to kill herself if she was forced to eat. This was how she escaped the disaster. Later, this behavior of the prison authorities aroused strong dissatisfaction from society, and many medical experts also came forward to protest. Parliament had to enact a "cat-and-mouse law" that stipulated that when women went on hunger strike, they would be released and then put back in prison after their release period.
After the start of the First World War, Pankhurst temporarily stopped fighting out of patriotic motives and even actively cooperated with the government. In 1918, when the smoke of World War I had not yet cleared, the British Parliament finally passed a bill giving women over the age of 30 the right to vote! Of course, this is all for later. After the 1910 election and while the Liberal Party was in power, the violent behavior of the "fighting women" did bring a huge crisis to the ruling Liberal Party.