The Open University
Yorkshire Region

Cultural Studies Research Forum
Reports and Abstracts 1995 -2000

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Josephine Butler and our current views of Victorian feminism

Helen Mathers

This paper came out of research I have been doing on Josephine Butler's religion work which I have written up in a major article entitled 'The Evangelical spirituality of a Victorian feminist. Josephine Butler 1828-1906'. I have just heard that this will be published by Journal of Ecclesiastical History next year [2000].

Josephine Butler campaigned for the rights of prostitutes and lobbied the government unceasingly from 1869-86 to repeal the Contagious Diseases acts, which allowed the government to arrest any woman suspected of prostitution in the port or garrison towns. The woman was forcibly examined for VD; the intention of the acts was to prevent the prostitutes infecting their clients. Josephine Butler was overwhelmed with anger at the denial of human rights and the double standards embodied in the acts. It was an act of supreme bravery for an upper-middle class woman to campaign against them, however, since respectable opinion saw 'fallen woman' as the authors of their own sinful way of life and Josephine risked her respectability when she spoke about prostitution.

At the start of my research, my question was why? Why did she do for this group of woman with whom she had no direct connection? When I began to read her writings (of which there many) it was clear that her main motivation was her deep Christian faith and her belief that she had a 'mission'. This may seem fairly obvious, but her religion has been underplayed in nearly every account of her life and work. The focus has been on her feminism and the details of her campaign. In addition, her religion has not been placed in the context in which I believe it belongs, that of Victorian Evangelicalism.

So what does this tell us about Victorian feminism? I would argue that many feminist historians have found it difficult to reconcile strong religious commitment with feminism. Josephine Butler is a supreme example of a Christian feminist and reminds us that the two together could be an extraordinarily powerful combination.