Suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst celebrated with birthday Google Doodle
GOOGLE celebrates the birthday of suffragette leader Emmeline Pankhurst in today's Doodle.
The illustration shows a group of female political activists holding up sandwich boards spelling out "Google".
Emmeline was born as Emmeline Goulden on 15th July 1858 to a politically radical family in Manchester.
She married Richard Pankhurst, a lawyer and supporter of the women's suffrage movement, in 1879.
She had two daughters, Christabel and Sylvia, and they were both active in the cause.
Emmeline founded the Women's Franchise League in 1889. It fought to allow married women to vote in local elections.
In October 1903, she helped found the more militant Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU).
It was an organisation that became known for its notorious activities and whose members were the first to be christened 'suffragettes'.
Along with many suffragettes, she was arrested on a number of occasions and went on hunger strike, resulting in being force-fed.
In 1918, the Representation of the People Act gave voting rights to women over 30.
Meryl Streep plays Emmeline in the new film Suffragette (released in January 2015) alongside Helena Bonham Carter as Edith New and Carey Mulligan as Maud.
The film, directed by Sarah Gavron, tracks the story of the foot soldiers of the early feminist movement.
Emmeline died on 14 June 1928, just before women were granted equal voting rights to men at age 21.