UNDER ATTACK The Cat & Mouse Act In 1909 imprisoned suffragettes began to go on hunger strike. The government introduced force-feeding, a dreadful torture, in which a suffragette was held down and liquid food was poured down a tube pushed through her nose into her stomach. As hunger striking continued and women became dangerously ill, the government introduced the hated “Cat and Mouse” Act whereby suffragettes on the point of death were released, then re-arrested when their health improved. Despite such brutality, women continued to fight for their rights.
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The women’s suffrage campaign faced constant attacks. People argued that women did not belong in politics; they should stay at home. Some said women were not capable of understand affairs of state. Voting and standing for parliament were unwomanly and should be left to men. Even though campaigners worked, ran businesses, owned property and were teachers, factory inspectors and school governors, their demands for the vote were constantly refused. Anti-suffragists wrote letters to the papers, accusing suffragists and suffragettes of being violent, unwomanly and “turbulent spinsters”, who were making politicians’ lives impossible. When activists stood up to speak, they were told to go home and look after their husbands, or were pelted with rotten fruit, eggs and stones. Some suffragettes wore cardboard under their clothes to protect themselves. As suffragettes became more militant, attacks became more brutal. In London, demonstrating suffragettes were beaten and their clothes torn and brutalised. More than 1,000 suffragettes were imprisoned and hundreds more arrested.
