Skip to content
Words of Wisdom —

Emmeline Pankhurst on Pursuing Reform

“You have to make more noise than anybody else, you have to make yourself more obtrusive than anybody else, you have to fill all the papers more than anybody else, in fact you have to be there all the time and see that they do not snow you under, if you are really going to get your reform realized.”

Emmeline Pankhurst (1858 – 1928) was a British political activist and tenacious advocate for women’s suffrage. In 1903, she helped form the Women’s Social and Political Union, an activist group that famously practiced civil disobedience as well as vandalism and assault. Despite her many efforts, Pankhurst did not live to see the right to vote granted to the majority of British women. She died July 14, 1928, two weeks before the passing of the Representation of the People (Equal Franchise) Act.

“You have to make more noise than anybody else, you have to make yourself more obtrusive than anybody else, you have to fill all the papers more than anybody else, in fact you have to be there all the time and see that they do not snow you under, if you are really going to get your reform realized.” 

-Emmeline Pankhurst, from a speech given in Hartford, Connecticut, on November 13, 1913, during an American lecture tour (h/t quotes.dictionary.com)

Related
Up Next