When Emmeline Pankhurst was born, British women couldn’t vote in elections but men could. She went to school in Paris and, as she grew up, she became interested in politics and creating a more equal society for men and women.

In 1903 Emmeline formed the Women’s Social and Political Union also called the suffragettes and fought for women’s rights, especially to vote. They held demonstrations and often broke the law by smashing windows and chaining themselves to fences. In 1913, a suffragette called Emily Davison was killed when she threw herself under the King’s horse at a famous horse race.

Women were finally allowed to vote in the same way as men in 1928 shortly after Emmeline had died.