GRADO EN ESTUDIOS INGLESES

MUNDOS ANGLÓFONOS EN PERSPECTIVA HISTÓRICA Y CULTURAL

PRIMERA PRUEBA DE EVALUACIÓN CONTÍNUA

COMENTARIO DE TEXTO
EMMELINE PANHKURST: “FREEDOM OR DEATH”

“Freedom or Death” is the argumentative discourse that Emmeline Pankhurst gave in

Hartford, Connecticut on November 13, 1913.
Emmeline Pankhusrt (1858-1928) was a British political activist, who fought hard to obtain
the women´s right to vote.
She founded the Women´s Social and Political Union (WSPU) in order to obtain the
women´s right to vote in England. The memberships of the WSPU were known as
“suffragettes”, and their slogan was “Deeds not Words”.

In 1913 she delivered this discourse to the Americans so that they helped her to win the
fight against the prohibition of the women to vote in England.
In this age , men could vote, but women, the poor ,the insane and the criminals were
forbidden to do so.

Emmeline Pankhurst visited Hartford four times from 1909 to 1916.

In this ocassion, in 1913, she reminded the Americans the beggining of their
independence.
All the lifes they have lost in revolutions, such as the Boston tea party in 1773, precedent
of the War of Independence of the United States.
She didn´t want to do any war, nor cause damaged to anyone.( Despite of the fact that she
said “I am here as a soldier” and that she have left her “battlefield” ).
“Human life is sacred” for her.
The only thing she wanted to do with her actions was “noise”. She wanted to be heard by
the polititians. And she justified violent actions as a result of several government
repressions ( “ you cannot make omelettes without breaking eggs”).
But, on the other hand, she didn´t have fear to die to defend her struggle. She put the
government under the position of : ”either women are to be killed or women are to have
the vote”.
She mentioned the death of a suffraggette in front of the horses in one of their protests.
The vote, she believed, was the first step toward political and economic equality.

“Freedom or Death” related the situation that women were suffering. Her speech
expressed the necessity of an equal treatment between men and women.
Women must be treated as humans beings by the government, she thought, and then
started a fight in order to reach it.
She has been in prison many times for her political activism. She and her comrades began
hunger strikes and they were force- feeding. To solve this problem, the government carried
out the “Cat and Mouse Act”. Suffagettes were the mice.
This Act allowed the prisoners who were about to die to leave. Once they recovered, they
had to go back to prison again.
Althought the “Cat and Mouse Act” neither took effect. They kept on fighting.

In 1918 women got the vote, women over 30, who were householders, wives of
householders or landholders.
In 1928, all women could vote when they reached 21 years of age (the same as men).
Emmeline Pankhurst died a short while after the victory.
Her efforts were worth it.
Spanish women voted for the first time in 1933.
In 1954 The Convention on the Political rights of Women asserted the rights of women to
vote “all on equal terms with men, without any discrimination”.

In 1999 Time named Pankhurst as one of the 100 Most Important People of the 20th
Century.
In 2002 , she was placed at number 27 in the BBC´s poll of the Greatest Britons.

To sum up, Emmeline Pankhurst was a woman concerned about the children and women
rights. Supported by her husband (not a common thing in those years) and her daughters.
she founded the WSPU so as to gain the battle to the government and obtain an equal
treatment between men and women.
Her speech to the Americans show us her desperation and her suffering, but also her
intelligence, strength and courage.
I think that it is a pitty that she could not see women voting for the first time in her country.

From my point of view, Emmeline Pankhurst was a pioneering, a very brave woman,
ahead of her time.
I can´t imagine how hard were those years for her and her comrades.
She put a big effort into helping women to be treated as citizens “of first class”, or simply
human beings.
She started a revolution that reminds nowadays. Thanks to people like Emmeline, women
have won rights, but working harder than men, in all of the aspects.
In my opinion, women have to carry on fighting against discrimination.
Women´s fight for equality is still ongoing.

Bibliography:
-The Guardian. Great speeches of the 20th century: Emmeline Pankhurst´s Freedom or
death. The Guardiam. Com. 2007.Web.October 30, 2017.
-Emmeline Pankhurst- Wikipedia.Web. October 30 ,2017.
- Women´s Social and Political Union- Wikipedia.Web. October 30, 2017.
- Sufragio universal- Wikipedia. Web.November 2 ,2017.
- Sufragio femenino- Wikipedia.Web. November 2, 2017
- Suffragette- Wikipedia.Web. November 2 ,2017
- Boston Tea Party- Wikipedia.Web. November 2, 2017
- Convention on the Political Rights of Women- Wikipedia .Web.November 6, 2017
- Shaba, Lana. The value of Emmeline Pankhurst´s Freedom or Death, 1913. 2012.
Prezi.com.Web .November 6 , 2017.
- Greer, Germaine. The Guardian.com. Germain Greer on Emmeline Pankhurst´s
extraordinary “Freedom or death” speech.2007.Web. November 6, 2017