Are you related to Mrs Pankhurst?

She is my mum!

I am married to her

Born in Kent and baptised at St Margaret's, Canterbury on 30.10.1785

Moved to Cheshire via Clerkenwell 14 Children Grandson Francis James Pankhurst

Born 20 April 1845 Stoke on Trent Fishmonger and Fruiterer

My Great Great Grandfather

Francis James Pankhurst

Richard Marsden Pankhurst

Born 1834 Lawyer Married Emmeline

Goulden 18.12.1879 He was 45, she was

21

Another Grandson

Born Stoke on Trent – 1834 Family moved to Manchester Attended Manchester Grammar School University of London Called to the Bar 1867 The First Pankhurst Campaigner for Women’s

rights

Richard Marsden Pankhurst

Could not own property – it passed to their husband on marriage

Could not make a will Could not keep her earnings Could not defend herself in divorce Could not claim support from her husband Had no legal control over their children

Married women

1866 Wrote the first petition to Parliament seeking women’s franchise Supported by Lydia Becker Presented by J S Mill

Municipal Franchise Act 1869 Drafted an amendment to give vote in municipal

elections to unmarried women householders Drafted the Married Women’s Property Acts

1870 &1882

Richard Pankhurst’s Contribution

Born 14.7.1858 – Bastille Day Radical parents – abolitionists Mother from Isle of Man Attended finishing school in France Married 18.12.1879 Five Children – dysfunctional family?

Christabel 1880 Sylvia 1882 Frank 1884 Died 1888 Adela 1885 Harry 1889 Died 1910

Emmeline Pankhurst

March £7,000 April £14,110 May £36,475 June £54,000 July £25,100 August £10,250 September £51,800 October £10,500 November £9,200 December £54,490 Total £272,925 = £22M to £90M in 2013

1913 Major Arson Campaign

She was a Tory Stood as Conservative in 1928 Election - lost Didn’t campaign for other than the Vote

What Would Mrs Pankhurst Do?

Sylvia Pankhurst “The best of the Pankhursts”

Artist Suffragette

More hunger & thirst strikes than anyone Community Worker in War

Nursery, Food distribution, Worked for Churchill in WW2

Socialist, if not Communist Anti fascist

What Did Sylvia Do?

I had two careers IT Development Citizen’s Advice Bureau

Worked with lots of successful women But lots of women failed to reach their

potential Low expectations Education? Childcare and career break issues

My Own Experience

The key in both was “You can’t solve the problem if you don’t understand it”

Do we understand the problem? Does Westminster understand the Problem? How do we get it into their thick heads?

Deeds Not Words