Emmeline Pankhurst was born Emmeline Goulden on 15th July 1858. In 1903, Emmeline founded the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) in her home on Nelson Street which still stands today. The organisation aimed to recruit working class women to help women win the right to vote, they were known as the Suffragettes.
The WSPU was quite radical and its motto was 'deeds, not words'. Its members undertook militant action like window-smashing and arson. Many were arrested, tried, imprisoned and tortured for their cause.
In 1999, Time named her as one of the 100 Most Important People of the 20th Century, stating that 'she shaped an idea for our time' and 'shook society into a new pattern from which there could be no going back'. Her work is recognised as a crucial element in achieving women's suffrage in the United Kingdom.