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Thinkers and political figures

Photograph of Emmeline Pankhurst seated, taken in 1913.

Portrait: Via Wikimedia Commons (opens in a new tab) · Public domain

Emmeline Pankhurst

Country
United Kingdom
Era
1858–1928
Tradition
Militant suffragism

Led the militant wing of the British suffrage movement, holding that decades of peaceful petitioning had failed and that "deeds, not words" would win women the vote.

01

Documented positions

Documented positions come from the sources listed. Similarity is this project’s inference from those positions, and is a much weaker claim.

  • Founded the Women’s Social and Political Union in 1903 on the motto "deeds, not words"
  • Endorsed window-breaking, arson of empty buildings and hunger strikes as political method
  • Repeatedly imprisoned and force-fed; campaigned against the "Cat and Mouse" Act
  • Suspended the campaign in 1914 to support the war effort
  • Argued the vote was the precondition for every other reform women needed
02

Where it sits on each dimension

Personal liberty

62

Evidence: Documented

Tradition and change

92

Evidence: Well documented

Nation and the world

66

Evidence: Documented

Power and its limits

76

Evidence: Well documented

Dimensions left unscored, for want of evidence: Wealth and inequality, The state in the economy, Environment and growth, Crime and punishment, Religion and the state

Sources

  • Emmeline Pankhurst, My Own Story · 1914
  • June Purvis, Emmeline Pankhurst: A Biography · 2002

Last verified: