Emmeline pankhurst biography pdf freedom or death

Freedom or death by Emmeline Pankhurst Mundos Anglófonos en Perspectiva Histórica y Cultural Curso 2013-14 APELLIDOS: Cifuentes Agudo NOMBRE: Encarnación CENTRO ASOCIADO: Gregorio Marañón Mundos Anglófonos en Perspectiva Histórica y Cultural 2013- 2014 Gregorio Marañón This speech was delivered by Emmeline Pankhurst in Hartford, Connecticut on November, 13th 1913. It was said on a tour in the United States and addressed primarily to men gathered in the room. Nevertheless, women such as Katherine Hepburn, a social reformer and leader of the suffrage movement in the USA, were there. Her aim was not only to encourage women’s suffrage movement but to explain why the movement had turned more belligerent and aggressive in Great Britain. In addition, she was aiming to increase fundraising in order to keep her movement on. The discourse is a political and historical-narrative text. It is extremely hard and powerful, showing the struggle of women as a revolution and a civil war. It is considered her most famous speech as well as one of the ten greatest speeches of the 20th century (according to the list compiled by The Guardian in 2007). It is included as well in the book Palabras que cambiaron el mundo. 50 Discursos que han hecho historia. Ed. El Lector Universal. Emmeline Pankhurst (1858-1928) was born and raised in Manchester. Her parents were involved in radical and active politics. Emmeline was introduced at the age of 8 to the women’s suffrage movement. However, her parents encouraged her to prepare herself for life as a wife and mother. At the age of fifteen she went to École Normale Supérieure in Paris. In 1878 she got married with Richard Pankhurst, a lawyer known for supporting women’s right to vote. The couple had five children. In 1889, she helped to form the pressure group, the Women's Franchise League. The organisation's main objective was to secure the vote for women in local elections. In 1903, after the death of her husband and dissatisfied with women's political organizations, she founded the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) with her three daughters, Christabel, Sylvia and Adela. The WSPU was formed exclusively by women dedicated to the fight for enfranchisement of women under the slogan “deed, not words”. Indeed, this organisation gained much notoriety for its activities and unusually violent demonstrations including window smashing, arson and hunger strikes of the e. Emmeline Pankhurst was arrested on numerous occasions and went on hunger strike herself, resulting in violent force-feeding as she relates in this speech. In 1914, her active militancy was interrupted by the beginning of the First War World. Emmeline launched her energies supporting the war effort. Emmeline Pankhurst Página | 1 Mundos Anglófonos en Perspectiva Histórica y Cultural 2013- 2014 Gregorio Marañón died in Hampstead (London) on 14th June, 1928, shortly after women were granted equal voting rights with men at the age of 21. Historically, women have remained outside politics and have been considered subordinate to men. The Declaration of Independence of United Stated (1776) was the first official document in favour of gender equality. However, women continued to have no right to vote and consequently no right to education, lesser work, etc. Later on, the English writer Mary Wollstonecraft was a pioneer of feminist thought. In her essay A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) she argued that women are equal to men, but appear to be inferior due to their lack of education. In 1832 Mary Smith of Stannore presented in the House of Commons in London a petition demanding political rights of women. On the other hand, the Industrial Revolution, whose origin was in England although it was spread to Western Europe and the United States within a few decades, also changed the social order. In addition to this situation England was immersed in the Irish issue after the Act of Union (1801) and in a colonization process around the world. In that context, with plenty of social movements, including Russian and Chinese Revolutions, Emmeline Pankhurst developed her women fight. Emmeline Pankhurst begins her speech explaining her role “I am not here as an advocate woman suffrage… I am here as a soldier”. This role was motivated because, on the one hand American Women had their own organization, National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) and they were able to achieve their own aims, and on the other hand Pankhurst had to explain why her organization was being so belligerent. And perhaps, it was because “soldier” is a male word, so more understandable for men. Pankhurst declares her fight as a Revolution but in contrast to those others Revolutions such as the Russian or Chinese, she needs to explain why women adopt the same methods in order to achieve equal rights to men, and it is because women are human beings as well. Besides, Pankhurst encourages the audience to think of a situation where men could not choose either vote; they would either have to surrender or they would have to rise up. Pankhurst exemplifies this situation with the Tea Party at Boston. Página | 2 Mundos Anglófonos en Perspectiva Histórica y Cultural 2013- 2014 Gregorio Marañón The Tea Party at Boston was a political protest where the entire supply of tea was thrown into the harbour because the taxes had been increased by the British government. The Tea Party is considered an iconic event as the seed of the American Revolution War (1175-1783). Pankhurst takes advantage of this event to illustrate two important issues; how innocent and non-combatants people suffer on war time and how the innocent people are usually women. During the Tea Party women lost their favourite drink, therefore the greatest sacrifice was done by women. The question she suggests is why men did not follow their demonstration throwing into the harbour their whiskey. Emmeline Pankhurst explains why their suffragist struggle is named with the word “militant”. She claims that at the beginning their actions were not militant, they only asked questions in political meetings although they did not find any answers. These questions provoked militancy in men, asserting that: (...) the first people, who were put out of a political meeting for asking questions, were women (...). In spite of the fact they are called militant, she believes it is a good argument to show the world that English women will not yield and they will make more noise than anybody else in order to be listened. She uses two babies as example: the baby who cries, shouts and kicks more will be attended in first place. Following this argument, she emphasises how the British Government has been able to deal with revolutionary Chartists who fought for the right to vote for working class people or with the Trades Union agitation during the Industrial Revolution or when they were able to deal with Revolutionary Irish people after the Reform Acts. Nevertheless, the Government is not able to deal with women who fight for their rights. In their ineptitude dealing with women, the Government introduces the “Cat and Mouse Act” in the whole of the British territory in order to try to weaken women who are on “hunger strike”. The strategies of hunger strikes were to seek notoriety and make the government ashamed; as a result, women were fed by force, provoking them pain, suffering, emotional distress, etc. Contrary to government expectations, women were strengthened with these humiliations. Therefore, the consequences for them were the “Cat and Mouse Act”. The Act allows women to be released from prison as soon as they became ill although, they were imprisoned again once they had recovered from the effects of the hunger strike on their original charges. Then women began a new hunger strike and so on. Página | 3 Mundos Anglófonos en Perspectiva Histórica y Cultural 2013- 2014 Gregorio Marañón At the end of the speech, Pankhurst highlights the idea of no return, women will gain the right to vote or they will be killed; that it to say “freedom or death”. Regarding the internal analysis of this text, it can be said that Emmeline Pankhurst shows an extremely well organized speech, looking for acquiescence of the auditorium, especially men. She knows that newspapers are publishing news such as: (...) in England there is an strange manifestation taking place, a new form of hysteria being swept across part of the feminist population of those Isles, and this manifestation take shape of irresponsible breaking of windows, burning of letter, general inconvenience to respectable, honest business people (...), she needs to clarify that in her country women are living a revolution, a civil war, men against women. These women belonged to every social class, from the well-off position to low class women, with different backgrounds, general belief or life style, but they were being forced to use these methods in order to claim their right as human beings. They are imprisoned and humiliated nevertheless this kind of hazing is just reinforcing their motivations making them stronger. During the whole speech she provides examples and similes in order to illustrate their circumstances and why they are using violent demonstrations. Pankhurst defends the thesis that women are not inferior or different to men; it is not just achieving the enfranchisement but also to have equal rights to men. When Emmeline Pankhurst delivered her speech at Hartford, some countries such as New Zealand (1893), Australia (1902) or Finland (1907) had approved the right to vote for women. Meanwhile, in 1869, the Territory of Wyoming had become the first state in the U.S. to give the right to vote for women but only for white women; Black men and women were not allowed to vote. Curiously, new countries approved the enfranchisement of women long before that countries located in the old continent. In 1948, the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which makes clear that everyone has the right to decide. Regrettably, it is well known that nowadays some countries deny women not only their right to vote but also to make decisions or in extreme situations they have been forbidden to show their faces. On the other hand, the named first world countries’ women can exercise their right to vote and theoretically they have the same rights than men but in practice women earn less for equal job positions, and women lose Página | 4 Mundos Anglófonos en Perspectiva Histórica y Cultural 2013- 2014 Gregorio Marañón opportunities during their maternity period or as we can see these days as a result of the economic crisis, women are being fired long before men. Looking back, we can imagine how hard and difficult were those days and the strength that supported those women, taking into account their limited resources and possibilities. Moreover it is quite interesting to see how women of every social class with different perspectives about life, fought together for a single objective, women had to be considered human beings with the same rights than men. Nowadays a great deal of people are suffering unfair situations, so women have to change our minds and fight not only for equals rights for women and men but also we should defend the rights of poor and disabled people, immigrants, etc. Página | 5 Mundos Anglófonos en Perspectiva Histórica y Cultural 2013- 2014 Gregorio Marañón Bibliographical resources     British Civilization. An Introduction. John Oaklan. (Ed. Routledge 2011) Literature and Gender, Lizbeth Goodman (Ed. Routledge 1996) Gender & Sexuality, Chris Beasly (Ed. Sage Publications 2005) My Own Story. Emmeline Pankhurst. (Ed. Kindle) Websites  BBC History http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/pankhurst_emmeline.shtml  Espartacus Educational http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/WpankhurstE.htm  The Eloquent woman http://eloquentwoman.blogspot.com.es/2012/07/famous-speech-friday-emmelinepankhurst.html  Freedom or Death. Emmeline Pankhurst. 1913. http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2007/apr/27/greatspeeches http://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2007/apr/27/greatspeeches2 http://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2007/apr/27/greatspeeches3 Página | 6