Leader of the British suffragettes, radical fighter for the vote
The leader of the British women’s suffrage movement (the Suffragettes). Unlike the moderate petitioning line, she argued for more forceful action to draw attention: marches, breaking windows, hunger strikes, arrested and force-fed again and again. Her slogan was "Deeds, not words." Her radical struggle drew fierce controversy in its day, yet succeeded in pushing women’s suffrage to the center of British politics. After the First World War Britain at last gave women the vote — Time named her one of the most important people of the twentieth century.
The suffragettes Pankhurst led had wearied of decades of polite petitioning with no progress, and raised the cry "Deeds, not words." They smashed shop windows, chained themselves to railings, went on hunger strike in prison. Such radical means were denounced at the time as "hysterical," yet made it impossible for society to keep ignoring women’s political demands — sometimes what a polite request cannot win, forceful action does.
Pankhurst’s radical tactics (window-breaking, arson, etc.) were judged differently in her day and after; this site states the facts and the dispute.
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