When fighting for their right to vote, women in the UK broke off into two main groups: militant suffragettes and pacifistic suffragists. The former were so determined to achieve their goals that they were willing to make huge sacrifices, including transforming their bodies into battlefields for political protest. In this episode, we will discuss the hunger strikes that suffragettes undertook in prison and the government’s response, which was to forcibly feed them, raising questions of what it meant to “protect women” and where the lines between torture and survival lie. “Arrest and imprisonment of nine suffragettes in Winson Green Prison, Birmingham, following violent protests and incidents linked to a visit by the Prime Minister, Herbert Henry Asquith, to Birmingham on 17 September 1909. Those imprisoned, with sentences ranging from one to three months, were Laura Ainsworth, Patricia Woodlock, Ellen Barwell, Hilda Evelyn Burkett, Leslie Hall, Mabel Capper, Mary Edwards, Mary Leigh and Charlotte Marsh. The file contains police reports, newspaper reports and a large number of medical reports on the health of the prisoners, several of whom went on hunger strike and were forcibly fed. It also contains letters from the prisoners' relatives, medical opinions from a number of doctors on force-feeding, including a large typescript book of medical evidence, and a number of parliamentary questions from the Labour MP Keir Hardie on the prisoners' welfare. There are signed letters from Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst, and various petitions, including two from Charlotte Marsh. The release of Laura Ainsworth on 5 October 1909 is noted.” 1909. HO 45/10417/183577. Women in the National Archives, The National Archives, London, UK. (N.B. This is where the Leigh v Gladstone files are located). "Being Fed Through Nostrils Is Described by Alice Paul (1909)." Clinical Sociology Review, vol. 18, no. 1, annual 2023, pp. 9+. Gale Academic OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A761299069. Accessed 1 Sept. 2025. Hunger Strike Medal to Maud Joachim. December 1909. GWL-2023-86. Glasgow Women’s Library. Glasgow, UK. https://womenslibrary.org.uk/collection-item/hunger-strike-medal-maud-joachim/. Marion, Kitty, Constance Lytton and Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence. Letter to The Times. The London Times. 10 October 1909. McKenna, Reginald and several signatories. “‘Political prisoner’ status.’” 25 April 1912. HO144/1194/220196, f492. The National Archives, Kew, UK. https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/suffragettes-on-file/political-prisoner-status/. Miller, Ian. A History of Force Feeding: Hunger Strikes, Prisons, and Medical Ethics, 1909-1974. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. 2016. Smith, Karen Manners. “Women’s Social and Political Union: British Organization.” In Britannica, ed. Britannica Editors. Accessed 19 Jan 2026. https://www.britannica.com/topic/woman-suffrage. “Suffragettes’ demonstration, imprisonment, and forcible feeding.” 1912. HO 144/1194/220196. Women in the National Archives, The National Archives, London, UK. https://www-womeninthenationalarchives-/documents/detail/suffragettes-demonstration-imprisonment-and-forcible-feeding/1510477?item=1510480. “1913 Cat and Mouse Act.” 1913. HL/PO/PU/1/1913/3&4G5c4. Parliamentary Archives, The National Archives, Kew, UK. https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/electionsvoting/womenvote/case-study-the-right-to-vote/the-right-to-vote/winson-green-forcefeeding/cat-and-mouse-act/. Not Referenced Directly In This Episode, But Recommended Further Research and Reading: Gullickson, Gay L. “When Death Became Thinkable: Self-Sacrifice in the Women’s Social and Political Union.” Journal of Social History 51, no. 2 (2017): 364–86. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26804038.
