"From 1905 until the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914 about 1000 women were sent to prison because of their suffrage activities, most of these being members of the WSPU... While these prison ‘experiences’ have not been ignored by historians, they have been discussed as a part of a broader account of the suffrage movement rather than focused upon in depth as a subject worthy of investigation. Furthermore, a dominant narrative of these experiences has emerged which [asserts] that the women themselves were to blame for their often harsh prison experiences, including the pain of hungerstriking and forcible feeding...."