Emmeline Pankhurst was perhaps the most influential woman of the twentieth century. Today her name is synonymous with the ‘votes for women’ campaign and she is remembered as the most brave and inspirational suffrage leader in history. In this absorbing account of her life both before and after the campaign for women’s suffrage, June Purvis documents her early political work, her active role within the suffrage movement and her role as a wife and mother within her family. In 1903 Emmeline Pankhurst founded the militant Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) and actively campaigned for suffrage for the next eleven years. On the outbreak of war in 1914, she called an end to militancy and became actively involved in war work. She adopted three ‘war babies’ and raised a second family, but remained committed to politics until her death in 1928. This fascinating full-length biography of Emmeline Pankhurst, the first for nearly seventy years, draws upon new approaches to feminist biography to place her within the context of her family and friends. It is based upon an unrivalled range of primary sources, including personal interviews with her surviving family.