Blair was an active member of the
Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), chaired local meetings and wrote to the local press. Although she was an ardent defender of
militancy, she did not participate in militant protests herself because of her young family. Her husband, Thomas Blair, was supportive, resigning his vice-presidency of the local
Liberal party because of the government's treatment of the suffrage question. Cathrine was a friend of a fellow suffragette,
Nannie Brown, who also worked on the
Scottish Women's Rural Institutes. During the 1911
census, to protest that she would only be recorded as the "wife" of Thomas Blair, Blair moved herself and her children to a nearby barn so that the census form would need to show her as a person in her own right. Blair's actions were part of a
wider boycott of the
1911 census, enacted by suffrage organisations. In 1913 The Prisoners (Temporary Discharge for Ill Health) Act 1913 was passed, commonly known as the "
Cat & Mouse Act". The consequence of this act was that women were not force fed if they went on hunger strike in prison. Those that went on hunger strike were realised if their health became critical but were required to return when they had recovered. Blair supported some of these women on her farm including allowing them to hide from the authorities. == Scottish Women's Rural Institute ==