Opposition to Tactics
"The government opposed [the militant tactics] because governments don’t particularly like people demonstrating."
– Barbara Winslow, Personal Interview
Suffragettes regularly came into conflict with the government. They heckled politicians, disrupted Parliament meetings, and fought back against the police, eliciting an aggressive government response.
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Suffragettes Under Surveillance, BBC News |
"Great roughness and brutality was also shown by the men in uniform. They pummelled the women and a man supporter unmercifully, and threw them about in a savage fashion, even after they had been taken into the station room." |
"Opponents of women's suffrage in Parliament used the terrorist actions the women were using to their advantage in debate, citing the insane actions as a very good reason why women should not get the vote."
– Marcie Kligman, The Effect of Militancy In the British Suffragette Movement
Time in Prison
Due to their violent actions, many members were repeatedly arrested. Imprisoned suffragettes' hunger strikes were met with force-feeding, creating widespread public sympathy.
"We do not strike to end or even shorten our terms of imprisonment . . . the prisoners [are striking] against a classification which [gives] them the status of ordinary criminals."
– Emmeline Pankhurst, Manchester Guardian, 1912
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The Modern Inquisition Poster, 1910, Suffragettes in Pictures |
“Prisoners were held down by force, flung on the floor, tied to a chair and iron bedsteads . . . while the tube was forced up the nostrils . . . We cannot believe that any of our colleagues will agree that this form of prison treatment is . . . “necessary medical treatment” or “ordinary medical practice." "Dear Mother, |
"I was determined to fight against it with all my strength."
– Sylvia Pankhurst, Manchester Guardian, 1913
– Sylvia Pankhurst, Manchester Guardian, 1913
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Suffragette protest sign, The Guardian |
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Suffragettes outside medical congress, 1906, Corbis |
“Hearing harrowing descriptions of force-feeding certainly incited some women to take yet more militant action, and stiffened the resolve of those, who could not make this sacrifice, to work even harder to the campaign.”
– Dr. Diane Atkinson, The Suffragettes in Pictures
The Cat and Mouse Act
Fed up with the hunger strikes, the British government passed the Prisoners Act, infamously nicknamed the Cat and Mouse Act. However, it counter-productively increased public support for the suffragettes.
"Any prisoner so discharged . . . shall return to prison at the expiration of the period stated in the order . . . and, if the prisoner fails so to comply or return, he may be arrested without warrant and taken back to prison." "When they were on the verge of death, the government would let them go, and as soon as the women got healthy again, they would try to re-arrest them." |
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Prisoners (Temporary Discharge for Ill-Health) Act, 1913, Parliament.uk |
"The government did not want to face the adverse publicity of force-feeding suffragettes who were attempting to starve themselves to death . . .The government's main concern was to avoid the creation of a martyr to the cause of votes for women."
– Nick Thomas-Symonds
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Cat and Mouse Act Poster, 1913, Women's Suffrage Movement |
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Suffragettes Who was Force Fed 232 Times, 1915, Manchester Guardian |
Supporters
Although rare, some MPs supported women's suffrage and the WSPU.
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The Citizenship of Women by Keir Hardie, 1906, National Arcthe hives |
"Sooner or later men will be compelled to treat with her and recognize her as a co-worker, and they could begin better than by admitting her right to be a co-voter." |
Reasons for Resistance
"We will put the enemy in the position where they will have to choose between giving us freedom or giving us death."
– Emmeline Pankhurst, Freedom or Death