16 of History's Most Rebellious Women
Emmeline Pankhurst, Britain
No one embodied the expression "Well-behaved women rarely make history" quite like Emmeline Pankhurst. As the leader of Britain's women's-suffrage movement, Pankhurst was not only a pioneer of women's rights in the U.K. but also a staunch advocate of public revolt. Encouraged by her father, Pankhurst's interest in the suffrage movement began at a young age. At 20 she wed Richard Pankhurst, a lawyer who encouraged her endeavors with the Women's Franchise League. After her husband's death in 1898, Pankhurst's involvement with the suffrage movement deepened, and she formed the Women's Social and Political Union, which embraced the motto "Deeds, not words." The WSPU, led by Pankhurst and her eldest daughter Christabel, carried out public demonstrations and did not shy away from violent activism — arson, vandalism and hunger strikes were commonplace for the group. Pankhurst was routinely arrested — in 1912 alone she was arrested 12 times — but she never strayed from her pursuit of equality. She reminded the courts in 1912 that "we are here not because we are lawbreakers; we are here in our efforts to become lawmakers." While the merits of her methods are still debated today, there is no doubt over the role that Pankhurst played in the enfranchisement of British women. The right was extended to all women in 1928, the year Pankhurst died. —Megan Gibson