Helen Pankhurst

Helen Pankhurst CBE (born 1964) is a British scholar, women's rights activist and writer. Pankhurst is currently CARE International's senior advisor working in the UK and Ethiopia.[1][2] Pankhurst is the great-granddaughter of Emmeline Pankhurst and granddaughter of Sylvia Pankhurst, who were both leaders in the British Suffragette movement. In 2018 Pankhurst convened the Centenary Action Group, a cross-party coalition of over 100 activists, politicians and women's rights organisations campaigning to end barriers to women's political participation.[3]

Helen Pankhurst

CBE
Dr. Helen Pankhurst at Broadcasting House, London during BBC 100 Women 2016
Born
Helen Pankhurst

1964 (age 56–57)
Alma mater
Occupation
  • Activist
  • Writer
  • International Development Expert
Children2
Parent(s)
Relatives

Early life and education

Brought up in Ethiopia until the age of 12, the daughter of historian Richard Pankhurst, she initially had a French education studying at the Lycée Guebre-Mariam and having moved to the UK,[4] continuing her schooling at the Lycée Charles de Gaulle before going on to the Atlantic College in Wales. She then studied at Sussex University and Vassar College, New York before gaining a PhD degree in social science from Edinburgh University.[5] Her thesis was published by Zed Press in 1992 as Gender Development and Identity: An Ethiopian Study.

Work and Activism

Helen Pankhurst has worked for a range of international development organisations including ACORD, Womankind Worldwide and CARE International, primarily in Ethiopia. Her focus has been on programme and policy in urban and rural development, water hygiene and sanitation and women's rights.

Pankhurst has been a trustee of Water Aid, Farm Africa and Action Aid[6] and has been a Visiting Senior Fellow at the LSE and a Visiting Professor at Manchester Metropolitan University. She has an honorary PhD from Edge Hill University.

At the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics, Pankhurst appeared alongside her daughter, Laura. The pair have since formed a group called Olympic Suffragettes, which campaigns on a number of women's rights issues. She also leads and speaks at the annual London international women's day march.[7]

In 2018 Pankhurst convened the Centenary Action Group, a cross-party coalition of over 100 activists, politicians and women's rights organisations campaigning to end barriers to women's political participation.[8] The Centenary Action Group has campaigned on issues ranging from increased transparency in political party candidate selections to an end to the violence and abuse of women.[9]

Pankhurst's book Deeds not Words: The Story Of Women's Rights Then And Now was published in February 2018.[10]

In October 2018, she was appointed the first chancellor of the University of Suffolk in Ipswich.

She was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2019 New Year Honours for services to Gender equality.

Personal life

Pankhurst is the great granddaughter of Emmeline Pankhurst, British political activist and leader of the British suffragette movement and granddaughter of Sylvia Pankhurst, campaigner for the suffragette movement in the United Kingdom. She is the daughter of historian Richard Keir Pethick Pankhurst and librarian Rita (née Eldon) Pankhurst, her brother is Alula Pankhurst. Suffragette leaders Christabel and Adela were her great-aunts.[11] She married David Loakes (retaining her maiden name) and has two adult children.[12]

Pankhurst advised on and had a cameo role in the film Suffragette alongside her daughter.[11] She promoted the film around the world, visiting Australia, Japan, USA and throughout the UK

References
  1. "Helen Pankhurst". The Guardian. Retrieved 8 December 2016.
  2. "Inspirational Woman: Dr Helen Pankhurst | An International Womens Day Special – WeAreTheCity | Information, Networking, jobs & events for women". WeAreTheCity.com. 15 February 2014. Retrieved 8 December 2016.
  3. Pankhurst, Helen. "The Government is failing women in this suffragette centenary year". The Telegraph. Retrieved 10 December 2018.
  4. "My Long Friendship With Richard and Rita Pankhurst". Ethiopia Observer. 27 August 2015. Retrieved 18 December 2016.
  5. Pankhurst, Helen (1990). "Women, the peasantry and the state in Ethiopia". Edinburgh Research Archive. Retrieved 14 March 2017.
  6. "Dr. Helen Pankhurst". HuffPost. Retrieved 8 December 2016.
  7. Topping, Alexandra (19 August 2012). "Olympic suffragettes regroup for women's rights march on parliament". The Guardian. Retrieved 8 December 2016.
  8. Pankhurst, Helen. "The Government is failing women in this suffragette centenary year". The Telegraph. Retrieved 10 December 2018.
  9. https://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/647ff5_6e9ef9e8ac954407bb2f573f434aa1f8.pdf
  10. Helen Pankhurst (6 February 2018). Deeds Not Words: The Story of Women's Rights – Then and Now. Hodder & Stoughton. ISBN 978-1-4736-4686-5.
  11. Pankhurst, Helen (3 March 2016). "My great-grandmother, Emmeline Pankhurst, would still be fighting for equality today". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 8 December 2016.
  12. Sylvia Pankhurst- A Crusading Life, 1882-1960, Shirley Harrison, Aurum, 2003, p. 184, 280
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