“Remember the dignity of your womanhood. Do not appeal, do not beg, do not grovel. Take courage, join hands, stand beside us, fight with us!” – Christabel Pankhurst.
One hundred years ago the Representation of the People Act 1918 was passed – legislation that enabled all men and some women to vote.
This wouldn’t have been realised were it not for the campaigning of suffragettes like Christabel Pankhurst.
Militant. Radical. Imprisoned. While a student of Law at Manchester, Christabel interrupted a Liberal Party meeting at the Free Trade Hall in 1905, shouting demands for voting rights for women. She was thrown out, spat in the face of a policeman and was sent to prison for refusing to pay a five-shilling fine.
In the following years Christabel, one of the most vociferous leaders of the suffrage movement, would be imprisoned twice more and the media would label her the Queen of the Mob.
