Women and suffragists faced widespread ridicule and harassment. Locally, meetings were often disrupted, and speakers pelted with rotten food. In 1907, members of the WSPU were chased across a fairground in Marsden after being heckled at an open-air meeting.

Cartoons and postcards frequently mocked suffragists, portraying them as ugly and manly. One postcard from Bamforth & Co, Holmfirth, read:

“Put me on an island where the girls are few,
Put me amongst the most ferocious lions in a zoo,
Put me upon a treadmill and I’ll never, never fret,
But for heaven’s sake don’t put me with a SUFFRAGETTE.”

Suffrage Postcard