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What methods did the suffragettes use, and how effective were these in gaining the vote for women?
acts of damaging behaviour carried out by the WSPU.
As a protest against the higher value placed upon property than people, the suffragettes tried to destroy valuable works of art. Suffragettes would follow where others had walked, such as ‘Slasher Mary’, Mary Richardson, who destroyed a painting which hung in the National Gallery, with an axe, and claimed that she wanted to draw a parallel between the public’s indifference to Emmeline Pankhursts health and their respect for a valuable object, saying that they could get another picture but not another life as they were killing Mrs Pankhurst, who was extremely weak due to constant imprisonment and hunger striking. Further attacks upon paintings were to follow. The WSPU also cut telegraph wires, destroyed plants in Kew Greenhouse and burnt messages with acid into golf courses saying “No votes, No Golf”. The most extreme of results of militant action was that seen at the 1913 Derby where Emily Davison died accidentally as result of injuries sustained after being trampled over by the Kings Horse. She was not the only one to die in the suffrage cause, Ellen Pitfield died of injuries received on Black Friday 1910. Others were physically weakened and died at an early age as a result of suffrage activities.
These protests of window smashing, arson attacks, cutting telegraph wires, and burning messages into golf courses were all orchestrated and were not reminiscent of traditional forms of political protest in the slightest. The illegal actions of the suffragettes meant that it was likely that they would get arrested. This led to a new form of political protest, hunger striking.
Many imprisoned went on hunger strike as a protest against unfair detention and to gain publicity. As with window smashing and arson attacks, the first hunger strike was thought of independently by Marion Wallace-Dunlop, who was imprisoned for stencilling a quotation from the Bill of Rights on a wall in the House of Commons. The action of hunger striking soon became official WSPU policy especially as hunger strikers were released from prison when their health was seen to be in danger. By using the experiences of hunger strikers, the WSPU could gain widespread sympathy. This was helped by the production of the suffrage newspaper ‘Votes for Women’ which regularly featured articles on hunger strikers. The paper drew attention to class
differences with working class women being forcibly fed, whereas upper and middle class women were given preferential treatment. Cases of this nature crew attention to class differences within prison and the wider society and which the female vote might help to eliminate. In 1913 the Cat and Mouse Act was passed by the Liberal Government to put an end to hunger striking. Its correct name was the Prisoner’s Temporary Discharge for Ill Health Act. This released hunger strikers for a temporary [next page]