Why Are We Militant Emmeline Pankhurst Analysis

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Emmeline Pankhurst was a British political activist and a leader of the British suffrage movement; a movement that helped women win the right to vote. Since 1848 women wanted to recognize their own rights and started the Women 's Rights Movement. The movement was protesting against the fact that women were not afforded the same rights as men. Since women were excluded from the political government, they pressured the government to grant them political rights. As part of the movement, in 1913, Pankhurst carried her appeal to the United States, where she delivered her famous speech Why Are We Militant. Therein, she expressed her ideas about women 's suffrage. She gave a talk to encourage American men and women to give political rights to women. In her speech, she states that both men and women are created equal and hence due to this equality women should have political rights too. Throughout her speech she emphasizes the discrimination against women, using the right to vote, the roles in marriage, and unequal wages as her evidence. Pankhurst emphasized how women never had the right to vote. In her speech, she mentions two women that challenged Liberal Leader Sir Edward Grey by asking, "When are you going to give votes to women?" This shows how those two women were fearless and did not think about the consequences. They stood for what they thought was right, but the society reacted by rejecting them. She further explains the distinction made between men and women by the