The bodyguard unit

In the early 20th century, women in England were demanding the right to vote – and often faced violent retaliation. Rather than back down, the suffragist group, the Women’s Social and Political Union formed an all-women security unit. Activist leader Emmeline Pankhurst asked Edith Garrud to train them. These “jujitsuffragettes” fought against abuse and arrest while pursuing long overdue rights. Edith Garrud was a pioneering instructor of women’s self-defense and a pivotal figure in British women’s suffrage. This graphic retelling of Garrud’s life reveals the resilience and (sometimes physical) resistance of her era’s voting-rights activists.