Sources A, D and F share this view that the suffragettes are irresponsible but are from different areas. Source D is a letter from the Home secretary at the time to Nellie Hall, extending her temporary discharge. The only way that she would be able to be given temporary discharge is to have been released due to ill health. At the time suffragettes were refusing food and water in prison so that they could be released. This is considered by the government as irresponsible behaviour, as it is disregarding the health of themselves to go against the government, just to prove their point.
Sources A and F are not as clear-cut as this. Source A is from a recruiting officer to Nellie Hall declining her offer to fight in the war. You can say that this supports the view that the government and media think the suffragettes are irresponsible as the officer is declining her showing that the government doesn’t want women in the army because they aren’t good enough to fight. But, it does go on to suggest ways in which she can help the war effort from home. ‘If you wish to assist, I would suggest you should persuade any man you know who is eligible, to do his duty by enlisting at once.’
Source F is a standard letter from the prison, but in addition to this there is a note from Nellie Hall on the bottom. This source does not support or support the view that the suffragettes are irresponsible directly. It is from a government prison so therefore the government must have thought that Nellie Hall was an irresponsible so they put her I prison in the first place. But letting her add a message to the end of the letter, which would have been screened, shows an air of respect and responsibility from the government to her. The message on the other hand is about how she is acting irresponsibly by refusing food and water so that she can be released on the temporary discharge, ‘The Cat and Mouse Act’.
Sources C and E follow the suffragettes whole-heartedly. Source C is an article from The Daily Herald, a newspaper that backed the labour party, who at that time were in opposition to the government. They backed the suffragettes as they also opposed the current government, ‘Your enemies enemy, is your friend’. This gave the opposition a good party line for them to follow at the next election, hopefully putting them into power and giving women the vote. You can tell that this source is behind the suffragettes and to a certain extent showing how irresponsible the government are. It likens the government to the Czars in Russia during the revolution and the awful atrocities committed by them against their own people through torture and a total fear regime, showing the suffragettes in prison as being the innocent party.
Source E is definitely for the suffragettes as it is an article from the National Women’s’ Social and Political Union, the foundations from which the suffragette movement rose. The head line from the article ‘ FED BY FORCE HOW THE GOVERNMENT TREATS POLITICAL OPPONENTS IN PRISON’ and is a statement from a Mrs. Mary Leigh, a suffragette prisoner in Birmingham. The source is littered with quotes from conversations with prison officers about how he was going to force feed her and if she refused by mouth then it was up to him to decide how, namely through the nostrils. Both were said to be a very mentally and physically destroying experience. This source shows how the media do not support the view that the women are irresponsible but the government are and from the government’s point of view, the women are being negligent of their bodies and their lives.
Overall I think that all the sources are biased towards one side or another so I cannot draw an exact conclusion and also from all the sources there is no definite trend to wards one side or another. From the sources I think generally the government sees the suffragettes as irresponsible but as the media sources are so biased I cannot say whether the media as a whole supports the idea that they are irresponsible members of the community.