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Emmeline & Christabel, 1st row, Sylvia, 2nd row
© Manchester Archives & Local Studies
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Our father who art a liberal |
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Equal rights for all
Pankhurst became legal advisor to Lydia Becker, an early campaigner in feminist issues and founding editor of The Women’s Suffrage Journal. Closely allied with the Manchester National Society for Women’s Suffrage, he drafted the amendment to the Municipal Franchise Act of 1869 that allowed unmarried women householders to vote in local elections.
Richard Pankhurst's graduation, c1893
© Manchester Archives & Local Studies |
The significance of this achievement cannot be underestimated. Never before had women, of any situation, had the blessing of the law to vote, and although it would be another 59 years before this opportunity was extended to every female person, regardless of marital or home owning status, the first seed had been sewn.
One Manchester woman, Lily Maxwell, did manage to cast her vote in the November by-election of 1867 due to a loophole that granted the right to all ratepayers, yet failed to exclude any specific gender. Several more female property owners in Manchester followed suit, but the practice was quickly stopped when in November 1868 women’s suffrage was declared illegal.
Richard Pankhurst was also responsible for drafting the first bill for the enfranchisement of women ever presented to Parliament, and wrote the Married Women's Property Act of 1870. Before this any property a woman owned, be it by gift, inheritance or her own earnings, was automatically transferred to her husband. Following the act a woman now retained full legal control of any property either before or after marriage in her name.
Words: Bren O'Callaghan
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