Women used a variety of peaceful methods such as leaflets being distributed, processions being organised, petitions being signed and meetings were held. Despite all these efforts the franchise was still not extended to women. Some women lost patience with the non-violent strategy of the NUWSS as they believed thatthe tactics used were not producing results that they wanted. By the year 1915 womens suffrage had been put before parliament15 times since 1867 and had been rejected each time. Much of the rejection was due to the lack of public support and little press coverage of the campaign.
In the year 1903 a breakaway group called the suffragettes was set up by Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughter. This was the WSPU(Womens Social Political Union.) The NUWSS had campaigned only for the vote whereas the WSPU also wanted better working and living conditions for women. The motto of this new organisation was "Deeds not words" many women were worried about joining the suffragette movement due to the fact that many suffragettes were sent to prison for breaking the law and there they were treated harshly. Some women fought this treatment by goingon hunger strikes, at first these women were released until they started eating again and then brought back in again this was called The cat and mouse act. The government then decided that it would be better to force feed these women.
In 1910 the WSPU suspended it's militant campaign to see if there could be any sort of a compromise. The failure of this angered the WSPU and they reverted back to militant action. During the years 1913 and 1914 they increased their campaign of direct action such as vandalism this include telephone wires being cut and and railway stations, sports pavilions and empty houses were bombed. As the violence increased the support for the suffragettes decreased also many women had other priorities and and the violence turned people against them an example of this is when many suffragettes set light to postboxes, chained themselves to railings, broke windows and just caused overall mayhem and havoc throughout Britian at this time.