The reason the NUWSS thought this was that the WSPU carried out many violent attacks such as burning churches, bombing trains and attacking individuals. One of the first types of violence the WSPU used was window smashing. It first started as a reaction to the repeated failure of suffrage bills in parliament, but later the WSPU used it as a deliberate tactic. In 1909, more WSPU members were sent to prison and that was when the hunger strikes began. Women did not eat nor drink but instead starved themselves, to show how strongly they felt about the issue they were protesting. When the Suffragettes carried out hunger strikes, they won a lot of sympathy and this helped their case.
When in 1910, the Conciliation bill, which was planned to give women the vote, was abandoned, the violence restarted and this resulted in the Black Friday. The women were outraged that the bill had been dropped and planned huge demonstrations outside Albert Hall with violence in mind. When the police arrived, they were abusive towards the women and ‘man handled’ them. Since then the relationship between women and police – women and government became terrible.
When in 1911 the Conciliation bill was dropped and a new reform bill to give more votes to men was passed, the WSPU were furious. The violence therefore restarted. The Suffragettes poured chemicals into a post-boxes destroying all the letters, attacked work at art galleries, cut telephone wires and carried out many other horrific types of violence.
Between the years 1906 –1914, the WSPU did do all they could, to gain the women’s vote. However one of the problems was, the effrontery, with which people felt that the Suffragettes were behaving. People felt very threatened by them, because they were stepping out of their ‘sphere;’ and people were very angry and took it as a rather personal challenge. It was not just a male reaction; it was a female reaction, too. Therefore, both men and women were very opposed to the Suffragettes. Once the Suffragettes started smashing windows, burning down churches and attacking works of art, a great mass of society had a very negative view of them, which is, perhaps, not surprising. However, very often, the Suffragettes were responding to the treatment they were given by the police. They were responding to the stories they heard about prison, about Suffragettes being force fed because they were on hunger strike. Therefore, it was a fast-growing response to a very intense and brutalizing situation, which they felt that their ‘sisters’ in prison were facing.
Conclusively, votes for women become less likely between 1906-1914. This was due to the violence the Suffragettes created and the negative view, which was formed upon all women. If the WSPU had protested peacefully like the NUWSS, then maybe the time in which the women gained the votes would have came earlier.
