What is happening in this picture? How do you feel about it? Is it right?

Women eventually began to act violently to get arrested. Once in prison, they went on hunger strike; they refused to eat. This made them weak and authorities worried that they might die in prison and become martyrs to the cause.

Think about the violence used against the woman in this picture. Is it justified?

To begin with the authorities let hunger strikers out of prison early. Suffragettes learnt that this tactic gained publicity and began to use it more often. The response of force feeding was incredibly unpopular. It was associated with mental patients, not with educated, middle or upper class women. The government cannot allow them to die in prison. They cannot continue to force feed them. What would you have done?

The Cat and Mouse Act The government would keep a woman in prison on hunger strike until she was very weak. She would then be released. Once she was in better health she was arrested again, often for a trivial matter, and sent back to prison. This was called the Cat and Mouse Act in reference to the way a cat plays with a mouse.

The case of Mary Leigh The Wardresses forced me on to the bed and the two doctors came in with them, and while I was held down a nasal tube was inserted. It is two yards long with a funnel at the end - there is a glass junction in the middle to see if the liquid is passing. The end is put up the nostril, one one day, and the other nostril, the other. Great pain is experienced during the process... the drums of the ear seem to be bursting, a horrible pain in the throat and the chest. The tube is pushed down 20 inches. I have to lie on the bed, pinned down by Wardresses, one doctor stands up on a chair holding the funnel at arms length, so as to have the funnel end above the level, and then the other doctor, who is behind, forces the other end up the nostrils. The one holding the funnel end pours the liquid down; about a pint of milk, sometimes egg and milk are used.... Before and after use, they test my heart and make a lot of examination. The after-effects are a feeling of faintness, a sense of great pain in the chest, in the nose and the ears.... I was very sick on the first occasion after the tube was withdrawn. Mary Leigh, describing being force-fed in September 1912.

The Case of Rose Harvey Gentlemen, Today, I saw and examined Rose E.N. Howey at H.M. Prison, Walton, in consultation with Dr Price. I also took part in the artificial feeding by tube. She is about 25 years of age, a spare, fair complexioned woman but highly neurotic. She was sentenced on January 15th to six weeks imprisonment. From the records I find that on committal she weighed 114 lbs, and today she weighs 108lb. Her height is 5ft 5in. Her lungs and heart are quite healthy; respiration quiet; pulse 72. Her throat is rather small and slightly granular but not inflamed. Personally I would be inclined to leave her without food for two or three days and by that time the spasm will have passed off. Any ordinary individual can survive with only water for a couple of weeks, and there is no damage to life in a healthy individual from any loss of body weight up to 25 per cent, or say 20 per cent, including the weight of the clothing. This woman can therefore afford to lose 23 lb without any risk. James Barr, a doctor, writing to the Prison Commissioners in 1910

The Case of Lady Lytton The doctor put down my throat a tube which seemed to me much too wide and was something like four feet in length. The irritation of the tube was excessive. I choked the moment it touched my throat until it had got down. Then the food was poured in quickly; it made me sick a few seconds after it was down and the action of the sickness made my body and legs double up, but the wardresses instantly pressed back my head and the doctor leant on my knees. The horror of it was more than I can describe. I was sick over the doctor and wardresses, and it seemed a long time before they took the tube out. As the doctor left me he gave me a slap on the cheek, not violently, but as it were, to express his contemptuous disapproval. Lady Constance Lytton, describing her own force-feeding in 1910

TASK You must write an editorial for a national newspaper on the subject of forcefeeding. An editorial aims to persuade the reader. In this instance you will be arguing against the use of forced feeding. You have some real life case stories in front of you. You can use these to help you.