NEN Gallery

Suffragette campaining in 1911. Suffragettes carried out direct action such as chaining themselves to railings and smashing windows. One suffragette, Emily Davison, died after she stepped out in front of the King's horse at the Epsom Derby of 1913. Many suffragettes were imprisoned and went on hunger strikes. They were restrained and forcibly fed. A so-called Cat and Mouse Act was passed by the British government to prevent suffragettes from obtaining public sympathy; it provided the release of those whose hunger strikes had brought them sickness, as well as their re-imprisonment once they had recovered. The campaign continued after the war until 1928 when women obtained the same voting rights as men.