Josephine E. Butler: An Autobiographical Memoir

by Josephine Butler, James Stuart (Introduction)

Josephine Elizabeth Butler (nee Grey; 13 April 1828 - 30 December 1906) was an English feminist and social reformer in the Victorian era. She campaigned for women's suffrage, the right of women to better education, the end of coverture in British law, the abolition of child prostitution, and an end to human trafficking of young women and children into European prostitution. Josephine grew up in a well-to-do and politically connected progressive family which helped develop in her a strong social conscience and firmly held religious ideals. She married George Butler, an Anglican divine and schoolmaster, and the couple had four children, the last of whom, Eva, died falling from a bannister. The death was a turning point for Josephine, and she focused her feelings on helping others, starting with the inhabitants of a local workhouse. She began to campaign for women's rights in British law. In 1869 she became involved in the campaign to repeal the Contagious Diseases Acts, legislation that attempted to control the spread of venereal diseases-particularly in the British Army and Royal Navy-through the forced medical examination of prostitutes, a process she described as surgical or steel rape. The campaign achieved its final success in 1886 with the repeal of the Acts. Josephine also formed the International Abolitionist Federation, a Europe-wide organisation to combat similar systems on the continent. While investigating the effect of the Acts, Josephine had been appalled that some of the prostitutes were as young as 12, and that there was a slave trade of young women and children from England to the continent for the purpose of prostitution. A campaign to combat the trafficking led to the removal from office of the head of the Belgian Police des Moeurs, and the trial and imprisonment of his deputy and 12 brothel owners, who were all involved in the trade. Josephine fought child prostitution with help from the campaigning editor of the Pall Mall Gazette, William Thomas Stead, who purchased a 13-year-old girl from her mother for 5. The subsequent outcry led to the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885 which raised the age of consent from 13 to 16 years of age and brought in measures to stop children becoming prostitutes. Her final campaign was in the late-1890s, against the Contagious Diseases Acts which continued to be implemented in the British Raj. Josephine wrote more than 90 books and pamphlets over the course of her career, most of which were in support of her campaigning, although she also produced biographies of her father, her husband and Catherine of Siena. Josephine's Christian feminism is celebrated by the Church of England with a Lesser Festival, and by representations of her in the stained glass windows of Liverpool's Anglican Cathedral and St Olave's Church in the City of London. Her name appears on the Reformers Memorial in Kensal Green Cemetery, London, and Durham University named one of their colleges after her. Her campaign strategies changed the way feminist and suffragists conducted future struggles, and her work brought into the political milieu groups of people that had never been active before. After her death in 1906 the feminist intellectual Millicent Fawcett hailed her as "the most distinguished Englishwoman of the nineteenth century."

Paperback

First published November 17, 2009

About the author

Josephine Elizabeth Butler was a Victorian era British feminist and social reformer who was especially concerned with the welfare of prostitutes. Along with other charity efforts, she led the long campaign for the repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts both in Britain and internationally from 1869 to 1886.

Reviews

[Isabella · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have read so many books where religion was used as an excuse for persecution, war, or mistreating someone. So to read a book about a real person using religion as a reason to love and to help others is a breath of fresh air and uplifting. This book shows Josephine E. Butler journey in helping others throughout her life. While it did get preachy many times in the book about religion, it never felt fake. It read like someone who is devoted to God and helping others in God's name. Though just because Josephine E. Butler was religious doesn't mean that she didn't do any badass things. The parts of this book about her run-ins with angry mobs of paid thugs were page-turners. This is a perfect book to read in difficult times especially when you need to increase your faith in humanity. I give it four out of five stars since at times the talk of religion overpowered the story and felt too preachy, even though I felt it was written in earnest.