Suffrage Pankhurst was a founder member of the
Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) with her mother on 10 October 1903. The WSPU aimed to campaign for the parliamentary vote for women on the same terms as it was given to men.,
Dorothy Radcliffe and
Elsa Gye in December 1908 organising a welcome for Christabel Pankhurst after she left prison On 25 July 1904 Pankhurst published an article in the
Daily Dispatch newspaper covering a visit to Manchester by
Susan B. Anthony, titled "Woman's Rights: An American reformer in Manchester." In November 1904, Pankhurst was a
North of England Society for Women's Suffrage delegate to the
National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS) convention in London. In 1905, Pankhurst interrupted a
Liberal Party meeting at
Manchester's Free Trade Hall by unfurling a Votes For Women banner hidden in her blouse and shouting demands for voting rights for women. She spat in the policeman's face and was arrested. At Manchester Police Court, along with fellow suffragette
Annie Kenney, rather than pay a fine. They were the first suffragettes to be imprisoned, For example, after reading an article about the arrest while in South Africa,
Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence joined the WSPU on returning to England. Her mother Emmeline began to take more
militant action for the women's suffrage cause after her daughter's arrest and was herself imprisoned on many occasions for her principles. After obtaining her law degree in 1906, Christabel moved to nearby the London headquarters of the WSPU, where she was appointed its organising secretary.'s transcript of speeches made by Pankhurst and her mother at the
Royal Albert Hall on 19 March 1908 and Pankhurst's mother Emmeline in court after their arrest over inciting a "rush" on Parliament in October 1908Nicknamed "Queen of the Mob", Pankhurst was jailed again in 1907 after an arrest in
Parliament Square. Pankhurst gave a speech at the
Nottingham Mechanics Institute in December 1907, which inspired
Helen Watts to join the cause. Pankhurst and her mother Emmeline gave speeches at the
Royal Albert Hall on 19 March 1908, which were recorded as transcripts by the actress, chauffer and suffragette
Vera Holme. , 1909Pankhurst, her mother Emmeline and "The General"
Flora Drummond were arrested for inciting a "rush" on Parliament when speaking to a mass meeting from the plinth of
Nelson's Column,
Trafalgar Square, London, on 11 October 1908. In 1912, she wrote that: "Militant methods have been good for the souls of women ... they have swept away the evils of ‘ladyism’, of timid gentility, of early Victorian effeminacy as distinct from womanliness." '', 15 June 1910Between 1913 and 1914 Pankhurst lived at a secret location in
Paris, France, to escape imprisonment under the terms of the
Prisoner's (Temporary Discharge for Ill-Health) Act, better known as the "Cat and Mouse Act." While in France, Pankhurst continued to provide the editorial lead to
The Suffragette through her contact with visitors, such as
Annie Kenney and
Ida Wylie, who crossed the Channel for her advice. She also wrote an article for
New Stateman in October 1913, calling to women for a militant approach in the fight for a female vote. Pankhurst was influential in the WSPU's "anti-male" phase after the failure of the
Conciliation Bills. She wrote a book called
The Great Scourge and How to End It on the subject of
sexually transmitted diseases and how sexual equality (votes for women) would help the fight against these diseases. In 1921, she wrote an article explaining why she never married, saying that the suffrage cause took all of her primary attention. On 8 September 1914, Pankhurst re-appeared at London's
Royal Opera House after her long exile. She was again arrested. She engaged in a
hunger strike, ultimately serving only 30 days of a three-year sentence. She began campaigning for the war effort, uttering a declaration on "The German Peril", in campaign led by the former General Secretary of the WSPU,
Norah Dacre Fox in conjunction with the
British Empire Union and the
National Party. Along with Dacre Fox (later known as Norah Elam), Pankhurst toured the country making
patriotic recruiting speeches. Her sister Sylvia's memoir included a reference to some of Christabel's supporters handing the
white feather to every young man they encountered wearing civilian dress.
The Suffragette appeared again on 16 April 1915 as a war paper and on 15 October changed its name to
Britannia, with this new name aiming to communicate "patriotic and imperialist intent." In ''Britannia's'' weekly pages, Pankhurst called for the military
conscription of men and the industrial conscription of women into
national service and advocated to pause the campaign for women's suffrage for the duration of the war. It also published articles covering the skills of "women munition makers" and encouraging women to study science and
engineering. She was issued with the "
Coalition Coupon" letter, signed by both Liberal and Unionist leaders. Her campaign focussed on a "Victorious Peace", "the Germans must pay for the War" and "Britain for the British". She gained 8,614 votes Some scholars believe that Pankhurst would have won if women under thirty had been enfranchised, as most of her followers were from this demographic. She was critical of "The Red Dean of Canterbury,"
Hewlett Johnson, and those who she felt diluted the Word of God. Her evangelism further exacerbated her relationship with her sister Sylvia, but she was appreciated for her Bible teaching by the Christian movement. Pankhurst was engaged by the Bible Testimony Fellowship as a speaker At the onset of
World War II, she again left for the United States, to live in
Los Angeles, California. ==Death==