Full name: Emmeline Pankhurst Born: 14th July 1858 Invention/Achievement: Votes for Women - Attainment of women's suffrage Date of introduction/Achievement: 1903, founding of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU). Representation of the People Act 1918 grants vote to women over 30. Died: 14th June 1928

Emmeline Goulden was born to middle class radical parents in 1858 and introduced to the women's suffrage movement at the age of eight.  On 18^th December 1879 she married Richard Pankhurst.  He was a barrister, 24 years older than she, and a staunch supporter of women's rights.  Over the next ten years they had five children.  

In 1889 Emmeline founded the Women's Franchise League, to campaign for the vote for both single and married women.  In 1894 they secured the right for married women to vote in local, though not national, elections.  

Richard Pankhurst died in 1898 leaving Emmeline with heavy debts and responsibilities.  In 1903 Emmeline founded the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) whose members were the first to be christened "Suffragettes".  WSPU became notorious for high-profile, confrontational tactics, featuring violence towards police, window smashing and disruption of political meetings.  Members were arrested and sent to prison, which Pankhurst regarded as a useful way of bringing attention to her cause.  

In 1908 Pankhurst was sentenced to six weeks in prison for obstruction.  In 1909 Marion Wallace Dunlop was arrested and went on hunger strike in protest at conditions in the jail.  Other suffragettes took up "hunger strikes" as a tactic.

Their often brutal force feeding led to general public revulsion.  The suffragettes' tactics became even more violent, including setting fire to pillar boxes and public buildings.  Before 1914, the women's movement had splintered, with some opposed to Emmeline Pankhurst's autocratic attitude and WSPU's violent methods.  

However, with the outbreak of war against Germany in 1914, both Emmeline and her daughter Christabel declared that the threat to humanity offered by Germany superseded women's rights.  Thereafter the formidable energy and enthusiasm of Emmeline Pankhurst was devoted to supporting the British government in its ware efforts.  

The women vigorously encouraged young men to enlist, handing out white feathers to "cowards".   It was probably this cooperation that led to the Representation of the People Act 1918, which gave the vote to women over 30.  

Emmeline Pankhurst died on 14^th June 1928, shortly before women were granted equal voting rights with men.