Happy Birthday, Emmeline

Today is the 15th July. As it's Emmeline Pankhurst's birthday, I thought I'd return to the blog I seem to have abandoned as of late and sing her praises. After all, she is a bad ass lady. Sorry for leaving you, you know my reasons...

So I did a wee bit of research (and by a wee bit, I mean I spent far too long in Birmingham Central Library, in a chair I was too small for, elbow in the air, scrawling in my notebook. Let's just say my handwriting is hardly legible). Naturally, I was wandering around the politics section (quelle surprise) and I noticed the glorious name of Emmeline Pankhurst plastered on a book my eyes skimmed across. Within minutes, I'd read ten pages and written three pages of notes on things I already knew but I thought would be interesting to share. So here's what I've got: 

Emmeline Pankhurst - 

"A traitor to her sex", "an idiosyncratic mixture of feminine charm and political guile", with a professional façade of femininity, whilst at the same time, a habit of breaking every known standard of 'acceptable female conduct' - A cotton wool woman with an iron determination. Her big ideas remained constant despite her tendency to switch between British political parties during her career. Not unlike the 21st Century situation, many found it difficult to reconcile beauty with intelligence. It was believed that women were seldom anything other than pretty and empty-headed or clever and ugly. However, contemporary newspaper, Saturday Night, reported on their assumptions of Pankhurst prior to an interview with her - "I imagined a hatchet-faced old dame, with her hat on an angle of forty-five degrees. Instead of these, I found a lady, singularly attractive in appearance, graceful in carriage, dignified in bearing and a public speaker or culture as well as force." Emmeline Pankhurst proved to women that they can have it all if they so wish. That they have the ability to be passionate and militant leaders, both politically and in their everyday lives. Yes, this was a century ago, but both female and male feminists are still finding it difficult to be heard and listened to. Today is her 156th birthday, and yet she still continues to inspire feminists across the world to maintain their determination. We've had a female Prime Minister (no matter how successful you believe Mrs Thatcher was, this is not the time nor the place to say so), and many have persevered in their quest for equal rights through organised protests, similar to those of the original Victorian to Post-War feminists. Happy Birthday, Emmeline Pankhurst.