Emmeline Pankhurst Speech Analysis

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This speech was given on November 13th, 1913 by Emmeline Pankhurst, who has been called the mother of British suffragette movement, in Hartford, Connecticut. She was on a fundraising tour across the United States and it became her most famous talk. She addressed to an audience filled with men but also women such as Katherine Houghton Hepburn (mother of the movie star) who was also a leader of the American suffrage, an audience assembled by Connecticut Women's Suffrage Association. Pankhurst's intentions were to justify the aggressive tactics the movement had taken and to encourage women to join their forces, it was also known her aim was also to increase fundraising to go on fighting for their cause. The lecture is a political text with a vigorous and impressive message. It has been noted as one of the ten greatest speeches of the 20th century according to the Guardian. As its own name stated, Mrs Pankhurst talked about the importance of the enfranchisement of women knowing that would be the only way to freedom. Emmeline Pankhurst was born in Moss Side, Manchester, to politically active parents, she was introduced to the women's suffrage movement at a very …show more content…

After her husband's death, she created the Women's Social and Political Union along several colleagues in 1903, which had the main purpose of taking direct action to win the vote. This organisation gained recognition for its high-profile tactics and violent acts such as bombing and arson. Her daughters, specially Christabel and Sylvia, also joined the WSPU and its cause. Their motto was “Deeds, not words” also written on Emily Davison's tombstone. Her involvement with the movement got her arrested on numerous occasions and she also went on hunger strikes which ended with unfortunate episodes of force-feeding which she explains in the