EMMELINE PANKHURST

“You have to make more noise than anybody else, you have to make yourself more obtrusive than anyone else, you have to fill all the papers more than anyone else.” So said Emmeline Pankhurst to her audience in Hartford, Connecticut. It was November 1913, and she was on a lecture tour, discussing the women’s suffrage campaign back home in Britain. The American press were surprised that the notorious suffragette was so dainty. “Yes, this is what a hooligan looks like,” she used to smile, fully aware that she appeared completely genteel. It was a disguise, of course. The suffragettes were an army, and Emmeline Pankhurst was their commander in chief.

Emmeline had formed the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) in Manchester ten years before. At first, it consisted of just twenty women, including Emmeline’s daughters, Christabel, Sylvia, and Adela. They had one goal: votes for