Emmeline Pankhurst

In these speeches, Emmeline Pankhurst and other leading militant suffragists defend themselves against the charges of damaging city property in their attempt to publicize the issue of women's suffrage. They illustrate the complexity of the issue and the ambivalence of the court which found them guilty of damaging city property yet acknowledged the virtues of the cause for which they were fighting.

One hundred years on from the first women in the UK securing the right to vote, and sixty years after women secured the right to sit as members of the House of Lords, Jeanette Winterson examines the recent campaigns promoting the equality of women and explores what can be learnt from the Suffragette movement a century ago.