Josephine Butler: Her Work and Principles and Their Meaning for the Twentieth Century

Strong religious convictions enabled the nineteenth-century feminist Josephine Butler to withstand the on-slaught of abuse that she received from those both inside and outside of the woman's movement. Other women's rights activists felt she was far too radical and her efforts would harm their attempts at extending educational and employment opportunities and fighting for legal and political rights for women Her opponents viewed her as a threat to the moral foundations of society itself. In the second half of the nineteenth century in England, the Contagious Disease Acts created a class of women who were at the sexual mercy of any man in six military districts. According to that law, all prostitutes were required to have a government certificate which showed that they were free of disease, which on the face of its seems to be rather innocuous. But, as they say, the devil is in the details. Any man could denounce any woman as a prostitute for any reason. If she was a never married woman, public health officials would detain the woman and give her a virginity test, making sure that she failed the test and issued her a certificate indicating that she was disease free and therefore entitled to ply the trade of prostitution. Since the woman could be shown to have had sex outside of marriage, she was branded a prostitute and all opportunities for honorable employment were closed to her. Because she could not find employment because her reputation had been destroyed, she was essentially forced into prostitution to survive. Notice that the woman was never arrested and charged with a crime, she was never tried and convicted of anything; any man, a spurned lover, a pimp who needed more girls, or a jealous suitor could accuse the woman of having had sex outside of marriage and that was enough to ruin a woman for life. Also notice that men were not held accountable in any way for the spread of venereal disease, the ostensible justification for requiring the health certificates in the first place. Poor and working-class women could quite literally be snatched off the street and forced into prostitution. Butler's first public crusade was to halt the extension of the Contagious Disease Acts and then to repeal the existing laws. Laws similar to the British Contagious Disease Acts were in place on the Continent in France and Germany. Harassed, jostled, jeered, threatened, unable to find accommodations in many cities, smeared with excrement, even mobbed, Butler, "the moral reformer", toured the continent establishing committees in many cities to fight against such local laws. Returning to England, she founded an international organization to fight using pamphlets and the press, in the legislatures and the courts, against such laws. She even entered the fray when public health organizations in several American cities attempted to import the European styles into America, stopping the movement dead in its tracks before it was able to take root here. She fought the rich and powerful men in Parliament itself who didn't want to have their pastimes disturbed: her greatest support came from poor and working-class men who wanted to protect their mothers, their sisters, and especially their wives and daughters from a vicious system. Historically, poor, slave, and peasant women, and women of the artisan class had always been fair game for rich and powerful men. With universal male suffrage, the husbands and fathers of such women were empowered to finally end this prerogative of the rich and powerful. This book celebrates the Josephine Butler Centenary 1828 to 1928, and is a facsimile of the 1927 edition.