Interview with a famous person: ~Emmeline Pankhurst~

1. Dear Emmeline,could you tell us a specific impetus which made you try to fight for womens rights? : !y parents were both politically active,what made me interested in politics,specifically in womens vote ability. They told me to expect a common life as mother and wife,but then I met my husband,Richard,who was known for supporting womens vote ability and I think this was the main reason why I wanted to do smth. to make it happen. I founded Womens ranchaise !eague" with Richard, and then I #oined the Independent !abour $arty.%lthough it was not a group only for womens vote ability,but a political party, I #oined it mostly because I was interested in their issues and in the things they promised they would do. ". #ould you tell us smth. a$out your status of %&oor 'aw (uardian) ? : s a guardian, part of my duty was to visit the local workhouse on a regular basis. I can say I was so appalled at the treatment of the women in the workhouse that I knew the only way it would stop was through women&s suffrage, which made me even more determined to fight. *. In which year did you set up the +omens ,ocial and &olitical -nion? : I set up the 'Womens (ocial and $olitical )nion in *+,-. I was helped by my two daughters .hristabel and (ylvia. The main aim of the W($) was to recruit working class women into the struggle for suffrage. The )nion&s motto was /0eeds, not words/, as I wanted to see some action, rather than holding meetings to simply discuss suffrage.

.. /ou have $een arrested many times $ecause of you0re politically activities, did this ma1e you want to 2uit fighting for women0s vote a$ility? : 3o, not at all. %s I said, in *+,- I #oined the Women&s (ocial and $olitical )nion and started fighting for real. The reason why I got in prison is because of that, but I got out again and continued. % lot of suffragettes got arrested, I&ve also refused to eat while I was in prison. They needed to understand women also needed vote ability.

4. If you were to ta1e a loo1 in today womens status,what do you consider $eing the most important issues facing women today? +hy are these issues pro$lematic and what can $e done? : 5his is a very good 1uestion.I can say many people still dont want to believe that discrimination,ine1uality and abuse are a reality,and not #ust a million miles away,but right under their noses. 6or example,in many societes women are still the property of others,particularly of their fathers,brothers,husbands and even their sons.What is more,even mothers and grandmothers often play a role in perpetuating the abuses against girls,in practises such as early and forced marriages,or even in female genital mutilation.(o I consider that economically.socially and politically,women remain second2class citi3ens in may different mutually reinforcing ways. Women have to fight,because we can not expect from smb. else to do that smth. that we need to be done in order to gain e1uality if we,ourselves, do not try to do it.