Some argued it was due to the widespread inability of women as "demented spinsters". Later, historians have seen it as a rational response to male intransigence. It was a "temporary, tactical necessity born of the failure of legal and peaceful methods", historian Brian Harrison said.

Suffragettes argued it arose for strategic reasons. As a response to years of peaceful campaigning which fell on deaf ears and a reaction to the Liberal government of 1906 which excluded women from meetings and which refused to meet deputations, thus denying women their main form of agitation. It was also a retaliatory measure against the government's force-feeding and imprisonment of women. Suffragettes were continuing the long tradition of protest which preceded 1832 and 1867. They believed that the government wouldn't grant women the vote until it was forced to do so. Such violence was generally not orchestrated from the top but often began at local level.