Emmaline Pankhurst - Manchester, UK
Posted by: 
dtrebilc
N 53° 28.668 W 002° 14.584
30U E 550235 N 5925690
This statue of Emmaline Pankhurst, a leading sufragette, was erected on December 14th 2018, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of when British women were first able to vote in the 1918 United Kingdom general election.
Waymark Code: WM102BR
Location: North West England, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 02/11/2019
Views: 28
"Emmeline Pankhurst (née Goulden; circa 15 July 1858 – 14 June 1928) was a British political activist and helper of the British suffragette movement who helped women win the right to vote. In 1999 Time named Pankhurst as one of the 100 Most Important People of the 20th Century, stating "she shaped an idea of women for our time; she shook society into a new pattern from which there could be no going back". She was widely criticised for her militant tactics, and historians disagree about their effectiveness, but her work is recognised as a crucial element in achieving women's suffrage in the United Kingdom.
Born in Moss Side, Manchester, to politically active parents, Pankhurst was introduced at the age of 14 to the women's suffrage movement. She founded and became involved with the Women's Franchise League, which advocated suffrage for both married and unmarried women. When that organisation broke apart, she tried to join the left-leaning Independent Labour Party through her friendship with socialist Keir Hardie but was initially refused membership by the local branch on account of her sex. While working as a Poor Law Guardian, she was shocked at the harsh conditions she encountered in Manchester's workhouses.
In 1903, Pankhurst founded the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), an all-women suffrage advocacy organisation 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 received repeated prison sentences, where they staged hunger strikes to secure better conditions, and were often force fed. 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". Adela complied and the family rift was never healed. Sylvia became a socialist.
With the advent of the First World War, Emmeline and Christabel called an immediate halt to militant suffrage activism in support of the British government's stand against the "German Peril". They urged women to aid industrial production and encouraged young men to fight, becoming prominent figures in the white feather movement. In 1918 the Representation of the People Act granted votes to all men over the age of 21 and women over the age of 30. This discrepancy was intended to ensure that men did not become minority voters as a consequence of the huge number of deaths suffered during the First World War. Pankhurst transformed the WSPU machinery into the Women's Party, which was dedicated to promoting women's equality in public life. In her later years, she became concerned with what she perceived as the menace posed by Bolshevism and joined the Conservative Party. She was selected as the Conservative candidate for Whitechapel and St Georges in 1927. She died on 14 June 1928, only weeks before the Conservative government's Representation of the People Act (1928) extended the vote to all women over 21 years of age on 2 July 1928. She was commemorated two years later with a statue in Victoria Tower Gardens, next to the Houses of Parliament."
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The statue depict Emmaline standing on a chair making a speech and declaiming to the audience with her arm outstretched.
She is shown wearing smart dress from her period with a hick necked, ankle length dress and a hat with a flower on it.
Both statue and chair are of bronze and stands on a paved area. There is a very low circular wall around the statue with the following inscriptions.
DEEDS NOT WORDS
Emmaline Pankhurst, Suffragette, 1858 - 1928
A shortlisting competition for the sculptor saw 5,850 members of the public vote for their favourite design.
Hazel Reeves won the popular vote and was the unanimous choice of the selection panel with her ‘chair’ design: Rise Up Women.
At the time of the creation of this waymark someone has placed a rose in her hand, and two baskets of flowers next to the chair in the Suffragette colours of purple for loyalty and dignity, white for purity, and green for hope.