Pankhurst House

Pankhurst House's charity is CLIC Sargent, the UK's leading children's cancer charity.

Emmeline Pankhurst

Emmeline Pankhurst was an English political activist and leader of the British suffragette movement, which won women the right to vote. She was born in 1858 in Manchester into a family with a tradition of radical politics. In 1889, Emmeline founded the Women's Franchise League, which sought to allow married women to vote in local elections. In October 1903, she helped found the more militant Women's Social and Political Union - an organisation that gained much notoriety for its activities and whose members were the first to be named 'suffragettes'. In 1918, the Representation of the People Act gave voting rights to women over 30. Emmeline Pankhurst died in 1928, shortly after women were granted equal voting rights with men (at 21). Time magazine in naming Pankhurst as one of the 100 Most Important People of the 20th Century , states… "she shaped an idea of women for our time; she shook society into a new pattern from which there could be no going back". Although she was widely criticised for her militant tactics, her work is recognised as a crucial element in achieving women's suffrage in Britain.