Dame Christabel Harriette Pankhurst was a British suffragette born in Manchester, England. A co-founder of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), she directed its militant actions from exile in France from 1912 to 1913. In 1914, she supported the war against Germany. After the war, she moved to the United States, where she worked as an evangelist for the Second Adventist movement.
Christabel Pankhurst, c. 1910
The Suffragette, the newspaper edited by Christabel Pankhurst, Emily Wilding Davison memorial issue
Charlotte Marsh, Dorothy Radcliffe and Elsa Gye in December 1908 organising a welcome for Christabel Pankhurst after she left prison
Caricature of Pankhurst in the London magazine Vanity Fair, 15 June 1910
A suffragette was a member of an activist women's organisation in the early 20th century who, under the banner "Votes for Women", fought for the right to vote in public elections in the United Kingdom. The term refers in particular to members of the British Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), a women-only movement founded in 1903 by Emmeline Pankhurst, which engaged in direct action and civil disobedience. In 1906, a reporter writing in the Daily Mail coined the term suffragette for the WSPU, derived from suffragistα, in order to belittle the women advocating women's suffrage. The militants embraced the new name, even adopting it for use as the title of the newspaper published by the WSPU.
Annie Kenney and Christabel Pankhurst of the WSPU, c. 1908
Emmeline Pankhurst founded the WSPU in 1903 and became the most prominent of Britain's suffragettes.
Mannequin of Lilian Metge
Emily Davison became known in the WSPU for her daring militant action.