23 Quotes & Sayings By Emmeline Pankhurst

Emmeline Pankhurst was born in 1858 in Manchester, England, the daughter of a well-to-do family. She learned to read when she was eight years old and continued her education at home with private tutors. As a girl she experienced the prejudices of society against women's suffrage, but she also felt the isolation of being an upper-class woman in her own right. Her father died in 1881 when she was only twenty-one, leaving her financially independent and independent of the traditional constraints of marriage Read more

She married Richard Pankhurst in 1887, and the couple moved to London where they became active in women's rights movements. In 1894 Emmeline Pankhurst founded the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) with a former schoolmate from Manchester named Christabel Pankhurst. The organization began as a handful of women protesting the mistreatment of women in prison and overworking them on farms, but it quickly became a mass group demanding full suffrage for women.

After a number of arrests and multiple hunger strikes, Emmeline Pankhurst was put on trial for high treason in 1896. She spent a year at Holloway Prison for Women before being released on bail. In 1897 she was imprisoned again until 1898 when she took up residence on 24 Sussex Square, London, where she remained until her death from cancer on August 8th, 1928.

The militancy of men, through all the centuries, has drenched...
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The militancy of men, through all the centuries, has drenched the world with blood, and for these deeds of horror and destruction men have been rewarded with monuments, with great songs and epics. Emmeline Pankhurst
It is obvious to you that the struggle will be...
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It is obvious to you that the struggle will be an unequal one, but I shall make it - I shall make it as long as I have an ounce of strength left in me, or any life left in me. Emmeline Pankhurst
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Every man with a vote was considered a foe to woman suffrage unless he was prepared to be actively a friend. Emmeline Pankhurst
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We have to free half of the human race, the women, so that they can help to free the other half."~ Emmeline Pankhurst Emmeline Pankhurst
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Justice and judgement lie often a world apart."~ Emmeline Pankhurst Emmeline Pankhurst
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I had to get a close-hand view of the misery and unhappiness of a man made world, before I reached the point where I could successfully revolt against it. Emmeline Pankhurst
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Better that we should die fighting than be outraged and dishonored. Better to die than to live in slavery. Emmeline Pankhurst
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Justice and judgment lie often a world apart. Emmeline Pankhurst
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From infancy, I had been accustomed to hear pro and con discussions of slavery and the American Civil War. Although the British government finally decided not to recognise the Confederacy, public opinion in England was sharply divided on the questions both of slavery and of secession. Emmeline Pankhurst
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You must make women count as much as men you must have an equal standard of morals and the only way to enforce that is through giving women political power so that you can get that equal moral standard registered in the laws of the country. It is the only way. Emmeline Pankhurst
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If it is right for men to fight for their freedom, and God knows what the human race would be like today if men had not, since time began, fought for their freedom, then it is right for women to fight for their freedom and the freedom of the children they bear. Emmeline Pankhurst
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I have made speeches urging women to adopt methods of rebellion such as have been adopted by men in every revolution. Emmeline Pankhurst
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Every principle of liberty enunciated in any civilized country on earth, with very few exceptions, was intended entirely for men, and when women tried to force the putting into practice of these principles, for women, then they discovered they had come into a very, very unpleasant situation indeed. Emmeline Pankhurst
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Men make the moral code and they expect women to accept it. They have decided that it is entirely right and proper for men to fight for their liberties and their rights, but that it is not right and proper for women to fight for theirs. Emmeline Pankhurst
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You must make women count as much as men you must have an equal standard of morals and the only way to enforce that is through giving women political power so that you can get that equal moral standard registered in the laws of the country. It is the only way. Emmeline Pankhurst
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Those men and women are fortunate who are born at a time when a great struggle for human freedom is in progress. It is an added good fortune to have parents who take a personal part in the great movements of their time. I am glad and thankful that this was my case. Emmeline Pankhurst
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Trust in God - she will provide. Emmeline Pankhurst
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One baby is a patient baby, and waits indefinitely until its mother is ready to feed it. The other baby is an impatient baby and cries lustily, screams and kicks and makes everybody unpleasant until it is fed. Well, we know perfectly well which baby is attended to first. That is the whole history of politics. Emmeline Pankhurst
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The argument of the broken window pane is the most valuable argument in modern politics. Emmeline Pankhurst
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My parents, especially my father, discussed the question of my brothers' education as a matter of real importance. My education and that of my sister were scarcely discussed at all. Emmeline Pankhurst
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Solitary confinement is too terrible a punishment to inflict on any human being, no matter what his crime. Hardened criminals in the men's prisons, it is said, often beg for the lash instead. Emmeline Pankhurst
22
Often I have heard the taunt that suffragists are women who have failed to find any normal outlet for their emotions, and are therefore soured and disappointed beings. This is probably not true of any suffragist, and it is most certainly not true of me. My home life and relations have been as nearly ideal as possible in this imperfect world. Emmeline Pankhurst