{{Short description|British activist and blogger}} {{Use dmy dates|date=February 2020}} {{Use British English|date=February 2020}} {{Infobox person | name = Helen Pankhurst | honorific_suffix = CBE | image = Helen_Pankhurst at BBC Broadcasting House for the BBC 100 Women Wikipedia editathon.png | caption = Pankhurst in 2016 | birth_name = Helen Pankhurst | birth_date = {{birth year and age|1964}} | occupation = {{unbulleted list| Activist | Writer | International Development Expert}} | alma_mater = {{unbulleted list| Edinburgh University | Sussex University | Vassar College }} | spouse = David Loakes | children = 2 | parents = Richard Pankhurst<br> Rita Eldon }}
'''Helen Sylvia Pankhurst '''{{Post-nominals|country=GBR|CBE}} (born 1964){{citation needed|date=February 2018}} is a British women's rights activist, scholar and writer. She is currently CARE International's senior advisor working in the United Kingdom and Ethiopia.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/profile/helen-pankhurst|title=Helen Pankhurst|website=The Guardian|access-date=8 December 2016}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.wearethecity.com/inspirational-woman-dr-helen-pankhurst-an-international-womens-day-special/|title=Inspirational Woman: Dr Helen Pankhurst {{!}} An International Womens Day Special |date=15 February 2014|newspaper=WeAreTheCity.com|access-date=8 December 2016}}</ref> She is the great-granddaughter of Emmeline Pankhurst and granddaughter of Sylvia Pankhurst, who were both leaders in the suffragette movement. In 2018, Pankhurst convened Centenary Action, a cross-party coalition of over 100 activists, politicians and women's rights organisations campaigning to end barriers to women's political participation.<ref name="telegraph.co.uk">{{cite news |last1=Pankhurst |first1=Helen |title=The Government is failing women in this suffragette centenary year |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/politics/government-failing-women-suffragette-centenary-year/ |website=The Telegraph |date=19 September 2018 |access-date=10 December 2018}}</ref>
==Early life and education== Helen Sylvia Pankhurst was brought up in Ethiopia until the age of 12, the daughter of historian Richard and Romanian-born librarian Rita Pankhurst.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Rita Pankhurst (1927- 2019) at Tadias Magazine |url=http://www.tadias.com/06/01/2019/life-time-friend-of-ethiopia-rita-pankhurst-1927-2019-bio-and-video/ |access-date=2025-10-09}}</ref> Richard and his mother Sylvia Pankhurst, the former suffragette, had settled in that country in the 1950s. Her paternal grandfather was Silvio Corio, an Italian chef and anarchist. Helen's mother was Rita Eldon Pankhurst, academic and activist.<ref>[https://www.ethioembassy.org.uk/rita-pankhurst-life-long-friend-of-ethiopia-laid-to-rest/ Rita Pankhurst's obituary, 11 June 2019.]</ref> Helen has one sibling, Alula Pankhurst, like both their parents a scholar of Ethiopia.<ref name=lfriend/> [[file:Richard, Rita, Tsegaye-Gebremedhin, Gebre-Kristos Desta, Helen and Alula Pankhurst.webp|thumb|Her parents, Richard and Rita Pankhurst, Tsegaye Gabre-Medhin, Gebre-Kristos Desta (at right), with Helen and her brother Alula in front]] She began her studies, in French, at the Lycée Guebre-Mariam in Addis Ababa. The family moved to London following the ''coup d'etat'' of 1974 which overthrew Emperor Haile Selassie and began the Ethiopian Civil War.<ref name=lfriend>{{Cite news|url=http://www.ethiopiaobserver.com/2015/08/my-long-friendship-with-richard-and-rita-pankhurst/|title=My Long Friendship With Richard and Rita Pankhurst|date=27 August 2015|newspaper=Ethiopia Observer|access-date=18 December 2016|archive-date=20 December 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161220162037/http://www.ethiopiaobserver.com/2015/08/my-long-friendship-with-richard-and-rita-pankhurst/|url-status=dead}}</ref> She continued her schooling at the Lycée Charles de Gaulle before going on to the Atlantic College in Wales, the first of the United World Colleges. She then studied at Sussex University in England, Vassar College in New York, and finally Edinburgh University, Scotland, where she gained a PhD degree in social science.<ref>{{Cite journal|url = https://www.era.lib.ed.ac.uk/handle/1842/19213|title = Women, the peasantry and the state in Ethiopia|last = Pankhurst|first = Helen|year = 1990|website = Edinburgh Research Archive| hdl=1842/19213 |access-date = 14 March 2017}}</ref> 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<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/author/dr-helen-pankhurst|title=Dr. Helen Pankhurst |work = HuffPost|access-date=8 December 2016}}</ref> and has been a visiting senior fellow at the London School of Economics (LSE) and a visiting professor at Manchester Metropolitan University.
At the 2012 Summer Olympics opening ceremony, 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 London march each year on 8 March for International Women's Day.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2012/aug/19/olympic-suffragettes-rights-march-parliament|title=Olympic suffragettes regroup for women's rights march on parliament|last=Topping|first=Alexandra|date=19 August 2012|work=The Guardian|access-date=8 December 2016}}</ref> She was interviewed by the Huffington Post in 2017 as part of three generations of Pankhursts, with her mother Rita and daughter Laura. Her mother said that feminism for her was “more of a curve or a climb - a growing awareness”. Helen said it was about seeing women in Ethiopia who were expected to carry water every day, whereas Laura said it wasn't so apparent until she was older because of the family where she had grown up.<ref name=hpost>{{Cite web |last= Hinde |first=Natasha |date=2017-03-08 |title=Three Generations Of Pankhurst Women On Their Hopes And Dreams For Equality In 2017 |url=https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/three-generations-of-pankhurst-on-their-hopes-and-dreams-for-women-in-2017_uk_58b82bf5e4b0a8ded67abded |access-date=2025-10-11 |website=HuffPost UK}}</ref>
Pankhurst was interviewed by Steve Wright in February 2018 on the Radio 2 programme "Steve Wright in the afternoon" on the centenary of the publication of the Representation of the People Act. During the interview Pankhurst highlighted the role Mary Wollstonecraft and her writing on the rights of women had played in the United Kingdom. Pankhurst also summarised the contents of her own recently published book "Deeds Not Words: the Story of Women's Rights, Then and Now" and looked forward to the centenary of the Representation of the People (Equal Franchise) Act 1928 and encouraged everyone to use the opportunity to "make this a better world"<ref>{{Cite web |title=Steve Wright in the Afternoon - Helen Pankhurst: "2018 is fascinating because of those women who are speaking up" - BBC Sounds |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p05x9f6h |access-date=2026-05-03 |website=BBC |language=en-GB}}</ref>
In 2018 Pankhurst established Centenary Action, a cross-party coalition of over 100 activists, politicians and women's rights organisations campaigning to end barriers to women's political participation; {{as of|October 2024|lc=yes}} she is its convener.<ref name="CA">{{cite web |title=Our Story |url=https://centenaryaction.org.uk/about/our-story/ |website=Centenary Action |access-date=6 November 2024 |quote=established by Professor Helen Pankhurst}}<br />{{cite web |title=Our team |url=https://centenaryaction.org.uk/about/our-team/ |website=Centenary Action |access-date=6 November 2024 |quote=Helen Pankhurst: Convener}}</ref><ref name="telegraph.co.uk"/> Centenary Action has campaigned on issues ranging from increased transparency in political party candidate selections to an end to the violence and abuse of women.<ref>[https://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/647ff5_6e9ef9e8ac954407bb2f573f434aa1f8.pdf Response to UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women Report "Violence Against Women in Politics"]</ref>
Pankhurst leads and sits on the steering committee of GM4women2028, a charity created in 2018 to deliver change for the women of Manchester.<ref name=jchigh>{{Cite web |title=Professor Jackie Carter highlights legacy and future of GM4Women2028 |url=https://www.manchester.ac.uk/about/news/legacy-and-future-of-gm4women2028/ |access-date=2025-10-09 |website=Professor Jackie Carter highlights legacy and future of GM4Women2028 |language=en}}</ref> Other committee members include Prof Francesca Gains, Eva Herman, Omolade Femi-Ajao, Profs Jackie Carter and Jill Rubery.<ref name=jchigh/> In February 2021 Pankhurst led "a virtual score card reveal" witnessed by Andy Burnham, the mayor of Manchester. The GM4Women2028 score cards are keeping track of gender equality as Manchester approaches 2028 - the centenary of the Representation of the People (Equal Franchise) Act 1928, which gave all British women the right to vote on equal terms to men.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Data, Deeds and Determination: GM4Women2028 (The University of Manchester)|url=http://www.socialresponsibility.manchester.ac.uk/news/february-2021/data-deeds-and-determination-gm4women2028-/|access-date=2021-05-16|website=www.socialresponsibility.manchester.ac.uk|date=16 February 2021 }}</ref>
During the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom, she led lobbying on behalf of childcare providers to ensure that they were treated fairly by the government's Job Retention Scheme.<ref>{{Cite web |date=April 2020|title=Written evidence submitted by GM4WOMEN2028 |url=https://committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/3032/pdf/ |access-date=17 May 2021 |website=UK Parliament}}</ref>
==Honours and awards== She has an honorary PhD from Edge Hill University. She was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2019 New Year Honours for services to gender equality. In October 2018, she was appointed the first chancellor of the University of Suffolk,<ref>{{cite web |last1=Mooney |first1=Bernadette |title=University of Suffolk announces first Chancellor |url=https://www.uos.ac.uk/news/university-suffolk-announces-first-chancellor |website=University of Suffolk |access-date=12 October 2021 |language=en |date=5 October 2018 |archive-date=29 October 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211029175201/https://www.uos.ac.uk/news/university-suffolk-announces-first-chancellor |url-status=dead }}</ref> a largely ceremonial role.
==Writing== In 1992 her book ''Gender, Development, and Identity: An Ethiopian Study'' was published by Zed Books.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Pankhurst |first=Helen |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ykYqAAAAYAAJ |title=Gender, Development, and Identity: An Ethiopian Study |date=1992 |publisher=Zed Books |isbn=978-1-85649-157-0 |language=en}}</ref> Pankhurst's book ''Deeds not Words: The Story Of Women's Rights Then And Now'' was published in February 2018.<ref name="Pankhurst2018">{{cite book|author=Helen Pankhurst|title=Deeds Not Words: The Story of Women's Rights – Then and Now|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3_I4DwAAQBAJ|date=6 February 2018|publisher=Hodder & Stoughton|isbn=978-1-4736-4686-5}}</ref>
==Personal life== Pankhurst is the great granddaughter of Emmeline Pankhurst, 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 Pankhurst and librarian Rita (née Eldon) Pankhurst; her brother is Alula Pankhurst. Suffragette leaders Christabel and Adela were her great-aunts.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/womens-blog/2016/mar/03/my-great-grandmother-emmeline-pankhurst-would-still-be-fighting-for-equality-today|title=My great-grandmother, Emmeline Pankhurst, would still be fighting for equality today|last=Pankhurst|first=Helen|date=3 March 2016|newspaper=The Guardian|issn=0261-3077|access-date=8 December 2016}}</ref> She married David Loakes (retaining her maiden name) and has two adult children.<ref>Sylvia Pankhurst- A Crusading Life, 1882-1960, Shirley Harrison, Aurum, 2003, p. 184, 280</ref>
Pankhurst advised on and had a cameo role in the 2015 film ''Suffragette'' alongside her daughter.<ref name=":0" /> She promoted the film around the world, visiting Australia, Japan, United States, and throughout the United Kingdom.
== Ancestry == {{ahnentafel |align=center|collapsed=yes | boxstyle_1 = background-color: #fcc; | boxstyle_2 = background-color: #fb9; | boxstyle_3 = background-color: #ffc; | boxstyle_4 = background-color: #bfc; |'''Helen Pankhurst''' |Richard Pankhurst |Rita Eldon |Silvio Corio |Sylvia Pankhurst | | |Eugenio Corio |Chiara Domenica |Richard Pankhurst |Emmeline Goulden }}
== References == {{Reflist}}
{{Emmeline Pankhurst|state=collapsed}} {{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pankhurst, Helen}} Category:Living people Category:1964 births Category:Activists from London Category:Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Category:Alumni of the University of Sussex Category:British people of Italian descent Category:British women's rights activists Category:Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Helen Category:People educated at Atlantic College Category:People educated at Lycée Français Charles de Gaulle Category:People from Addis Ababa Category:Trustees of charities