Emmeline Pankhurst

Ten years in the making, grounded in wide-ranging research and primary sources, this is a new and controversial portrait of 'the best loved and best hated woman' in Edwardian England, Emmeline Pankhurst. Mrs Pankhurst is a figure of historical stature, heroine of the Votes for Women Campaign and founder of the Women's Social and Political Union. Yet assessments of her character and achievements have hitherto rested on two partial biographies by her warring daughters, Christabel and Sylvia, and sundry accounts of the WSPU. While Christabel has nothing but 'awe and admiration' for her mother, Professor Purvis claims that it is Sylvia's disaffected criticisms that have ruined our understanding of the pioneer. Was she really a formidable autocrat who ruled her family and the WSPU with a rod of iron? A monster who pursued her dream over the bodies of her children? And, in the end, nothing more than a ruthless, middle-class opportunist? Or was there rather more to Emmeline than has so far met the eye? The author's heroine is a positive whirlwind of energy and a fighter whose abilities would make anyone other than Margaret Thatcher feel inadequate. Emmeline was not only prepared to take on all the social woes of womanhood; she was a whiz at everything from interior decor to organizing demonstrations. She laid her own carpets, did her own upholstery and had five children. With the support of her husband Richard, a barrister and political extremist, she managed to break free from the designated child-like role of a wife. Instead, the Pankhursts plunged into numerous social protests. Emmeline was appalled by conditions at the Bryant and May factories where women workers developed 'phossy jaw' from dipping matches into phosphorous. She became associated with the Women's Franchise League not just to obtain the vote but to try to gain equal divorce and inheritance rights. When her husband died, she earned her own living, managing shops, working as a registrar and lecturing. She founded the WSPU in 1903 with Christabel as a single-sex organization based on deeds rather than words. Emmeline saw her quest for the vote as the fulfilment of her destiny. Leading a procession of 3,000 women to the Commons, she gained widespread publicity. The lengthy and almost unendurable fight for votes makes sober reading. A vicious cycle of imprisonment, hunger strikes and forcible feeding lasted for years. Emmeline and the WSPU are shown tenaciously and bravely pursuing a heartbreaking trail as they found themselves tricked and betrayed at every turn by Asquith's Liberal government. Although the campaigns ceased during the First World War and women were eventually granted the vote afterwards, the author points to the failure of historians to explore Mrs Pankhurst's wider role - her campaigning to allow women to undertake war work, her patriotic feminism and her achievement in helping to bring about a blurring of traditional gender roles. This is a timely, important and highly readable study of an unjustly caricatured figure. (Kirkus UK)