Josephine Butler - Social Reformer

 Josephine Grey was born in 1828. She was the daughter of an old Northumberland Family. In 1852 she married the Revd George Butler an educationalist and Canon at Winchester. After the birth of five children the family moved to Liverpool in 1866 when George became the head of Liverpool college. In this city Josephine encountered the problem of prostitution. She refused to ignore it and opened her home as a refuge for prostitutes and began to campaign on their behalf.

In the society of the time it was regarded as unseemly for a woman to be aware of issues like prostitution and to express views about the matter in public. She thus encountered a lot of opposition to her work. Her faith underpinned her work, she even found time to write a biography of Catherine of Siena.

One particular issue was the Contagious Diseases Act passed by Parliament in the 1860s to protect military and naval personnel from sexually transmitted diseases. This Act was characterised by its inclination to criminalise the prostitutes rather then their clients. It imposed police surveillance, arrest on suspicion and compulsory medical examination on women suspected of being prostitutes. There were cases of women who did not act as prostitutes being subjected to degrading and painful medical examination with no right to appeal. Josephine Butler opposed this practice vehemently and won the support of other influential women including Florence Nightingale and Harriet Martineau.

After a prolonged campaign the Act was repealed in 1886.

Josephine was a seasoned campaigner such as in opposing the white slave trade. She succeeded in getting legislation onto the statute book that raised the age of consent from the age of thirteen to sixteen. She wrote several books promoting educational opportunities and equality for women. She put pressure on Cambridge University, eventually leading to the formation of Newnham College. Josephine Butler died in 1906

Motivated by her Christian faith, she worked hard to improve the lives of others. How many people in the twenty first century would claim faith as their reason for such work?


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