As suffragettes increasingly found themselves jailed, many
resisted unfair or inhumane imprisonment with hunger strikes. In
response, jailers would often force-feed female prisoners with
steel devices to pry open their mouths and long hoses inserted
into their noses and down their throats. This caused severe
damage to the women’s faces, mouths, lungs, and stomachs,
sometimes causing illness and death. The British government
responded by enacting the Prisoner’s Act of 1913 which
temporarily freed prisoners to recuperate (or die) at home, at
which time they could be rearrested. The intention was to free
the government from responsibility of injury and death from
force feeding prisoners. This act became popularly known as the
“Cat and Mouse Act,” as the government was seen as toying with
their female prey as a cat would a mouse. Suddenly, the cat
takes on a decidedly more masculine, “tom cat” persona. The cat
now represented the violent realities of women’s struggle for
political rights in the male public sphere