The Vote as Voice: Tracing the Intersections of Feminism and Free Speech Through Emmeline Pankhurst’s Address “Freedom or Death”

Abstract

At its core, feminist rhetorical scholarship is about freedom of expression. However, few scholars of free speech engage questions of gender, and those that do largely limit their focus to the harm expression has had on women, situating women objects of speech instead of speaking subjects. To create a stronger foundation from which free speech scholars may explore issues of gender, this paper seeks to suture together feminist and free speech scholarship by exploring how Emmeline Pankhurst’s speech, “Freedom or Death,” lends unique insight into how suffrage advocates envisioned the vote as voice.