The women who joined the WSPU had nothing to lose and were therefore able to call men's bluff. The argument that they were putting back women's cause would stand up no longer. As far as the WSPU were concerned it couldn't go back any further. The argument that men wouldn't like them if they behaved in this way was not valid. Men didn't like women anyway; if they did they would concede women the vote. The argument that it was unladylike and uncivilized to behave in this militant fashion could be readily countered with the argument that they took their stands from men who were behaving in an ungentleman-like, uncivilized, and treacherous fashion in relation to women's suffrage, and women's struggle.