Charlotte Marsh at a Suffragette rally
The Suffragette leader Charlotte Marsh poses for the photographer Christina Broom, before a male crowd assembled for a rally at Hyde Park in June 1910.
How were the Suffragettes treated by the government?
As the campaign became increasingly militant, over a thousand Suffragettes, including Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters Christabel, Sylvia and Adela, received prison sentences for their actions. Many Suffragettes were sent to Holloway Prison in North London where they protested against the refusal to treat them as political prisoners by going on hunger strike. In response, the government introduced a policy of force-feeding.
What was the Cat and Mouse Act?
When force-feeding failed, the British government passed a law that was referred to by the Suffragettes as the Cat and Mouse Act in 1913. This was a law that allowed hunger-striking Suffragettes to be released from prison when they were weakened, but only 'on licence'.
Once their health have been restored, or they reappeared in public taking part in militant Suffragette actions, they would be re-arrested and returned to prison. This idea of the law allowing for prisoners to be let go only for the police to catch them again, just as a cat plays with a mouse, inspired the name.