Introduction
Dr. Helen Pankhurst (1964-) is an international development and women's rights activist and writer. Pankhurst is currently CARE International's senior advisor working in the UK and Ethiopia. Pankhurst is the great-granddaughter of Emmeline Pankhurst and granddaughter of Sylvia Pankhurst, who were both leaders in the British suffragette movement.
Early life and education
Brought up in Ethiopia until the age of 12, Pankhurst initially had a french education going first to the Lycée Guebre-Mariam and having moved to the UK, 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 social science PhD from Edinburgh University.
Growing up she felt guided by her grandmother towards work in international development and women's rights.
Work and Activism
Pankhurst has worked for a range of international development organisations including ACORD, Womankind Worldwide and CARE International.
Pankhurst is passionate about continuing the legacy started by her grandmother and great-grandmother. At the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics, Pankhurst appeared alongside her daughter. The pair have since formed a group called Olympic Suffragettes, which campaigns on a number of women's rights issues, including international women's day marches.
Pankhurst has been a trustee of Water Aid, Farm Africa and Action Aid and has been a visiting professor at the LSE and at Manchester Metropolitan University. She has an honorary PhD from Edge Hill University.
She was a trustee of Water Aid and Farm Africa, and is a trustee of Action Aid.
Personal life
Pankhurst is the great granddaughter of Emmeline Pankhurst, British political activist and leader of the British suffragette movement, and granddaughter of Estelle Sylvia Pankhurst, campaigner for the suffragette movement in the United Kingdom. She is the daughter of historian Richard Keir Pethick Pankhurst and librarian Rita Pankhurst, her brother is Alula Pankhurst. Suffragette leaders Christabel and Adela were her great-aunts. She has two children.
Pankhurst advised on and had a cameo role in the film Suffragette alongside her daughter.