Votes for Women: The Struggle for Suffrage Revisited

All over America the Suffragists declare that they have gained hope and inspiration from our great British movement. In the early days of our long struggle it was we who drew inspiration from them. Our movements act and react on each other. We and the world have much to gain from our joint effort.

E. Sylvia Pankhurst, 1911

The three British militant suffragettes, ¹ Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters Christabel and Sylvia, were famous throughout the world by the time votes for women were won in America and Britain. Born in Manchester in 1858, Emmeline Goulden had, as a schoolgirl, been influenced by the city's early support for woman suffrage and by her parents' sympathy for the cause. Her marriage to an established reformer, Richard Pankhurst, had helped to radicalize her further. Widowed early, Emmeline was of necessity drawn further into affairs beyond the home. She also shared with her children an ardent desire to make a difference in the world, and in due course she did so through founding a suffrage society in 1903— the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU)—whose members and methods were to render the Pankhurst name notorious.

To spread the suffrage message, Mrs. Pankhurst and her two elder daughters eventually toured the United States: Emmeline in 1909, 1911, and 1913; Sylvia in 1910–1911 and 1912; and Emmeline and Christabel dur

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