Josephine Butler

Josephine Elizabeth Butler (1828-1906) was an English feminist and social reformer. 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 Grey was born on 13 April 1828 in Northumberland. She was the fourth daughter and seventh child of Hannah (née Annett) and John Grey, a land agent and agricultural expert, who was a cousin of the reformist British Prime Minister, Lord Grey. In 1833 John was appointed manager of the Greenwich Hospital Estates in Dilston, where John acted as Lord Grey's chief political agent. In this role, John promoted his cousin's political opinions locally, including support for Catholic emancipation, the abolition of slavery, and reform of the poor laws. Josephine completed her schooling at a boarding school in Newcastle upon Tyne.

John treated his children equally within the home, educating them all in politics and social issues, and introducing them to politically important visitors. John's political work and ideology had a strong influence on his daughter, as did the religious teaching she received from her mother. Thus, she grew up surrounded by those with a strong social conscience and a staunch religious faith.

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“I spoke to Him in solitude, as a person who could answer... Do not imagine that on these occasions I worked myself up into any excitement; there was much pain in such an effort, and dogged determination required. Nor was it a devotional sentiment that urged me on. It was a desire to know God and my relation to Him.”

Around the age of 17 Grey went through a religious crisis, probably caused by discovering the body of suicide victim while out riding. She became disenchanted with her weekly church attendance, describing the local vicar as "an honest man in the pulpit ... [who] taught us loyally all that he probably himself knew about God, but whose words did not even touch the fringe of my soul's deep discontent". Following her crisis, Grey did not identify with any single strand of Christianity, and remained critical of the Anglican church. She later wrote that she "imbibed from childhood the widest ideas of vital Christianity, only it was Christianity. I have not much sympathy with the Church". She began to speak directly to God in her prayers.

In mid-1847 Grey visited her brother in Ireland at the height of the Great Famine. Here she witnessed firsthand the rampant suffering of the poor. She was deeply affected by her experiences and later recalled that: "As a young girl, I had no conception of the full meaning of the misery I saw around me, yet it printed itself upon my brain and memory."

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By 1850, Grey had grown close to George Butler, a Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford, whom she had met at several balls and who sent her poetry frequently. The couple became engaged in January 1851 and married a year later. They set up home at 124, High Street, Oxford. George was a scholar and cleric and shared with his wife a commitment to liberal reforms and a strong Christian belief. She later wrote that they often "prayed together that a holy revolution might come about and that the Kingdom of God might be established on the earth".

In November 1852 the Butlers had a son, George Grey Butler, followed by a second, Arthur Stanley—known as Stanley—in May 1854. Butler's later memories of Oxford were of a closeted and misogynist community lacking in family life; she was often the only female at social gatherings and would listen in anger to "the open acceptance of the double standard by the gentlemen of the university". She was disgusted that the male conversationalists considered it natural that a "moral lapse in a woman was spoken of as an immensely worse thing than in a man". She conseuqnetly made the wise decision "to speak little with men, but much with God". As a more practical measure she—and George—began to help many of the “fallen woman” of Oxford and invited some to live in their home. One case in which they were involved concerned a young woman serving a prison sentence at Newgate Prison. The woman had been seduced by a university don who had subsequently abandoned her and the woman had murdered her baby in despair.

By 1856 Oxford's damp atmosphere had exacerbated a long-standing lesion on Josephine’s lung; her doctor informed her that to remain in Oxford could be fatal. George purchased a house in Clifton, near Bristol, where their third son, Charles, was born in 1857. George took the position of vice-principal at Cheltenham College and they moved to a local house. They continued their support for liberal causes, making them unpopular with their peers; Butler described the resultant feeling of social isolation as “often painful ... but the discipline was useful".

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In May 1859 Butler gave birth to her final child, a daughter, Evangeline Mary, known as Eva. When she was just 5 years old, Eva fell 40 feet from the top-floor banister onto the stone floor of the hallway in her home. She died three hours later. Butler was distraught at the loss. She could not sleep properly or discuss the circumstances of her daughter’s death for 30 years.

In October 1864 Stanley contracted diphtheria. Butler herself was suffering rom depression and was in poor physical health. Once the worst of Stanley's ailment passed, Butler decided to take him to Naples so they could both recuperate. However, their ship was rocked with bad weather and Butler had a physical breakdown on board which she was lucky to survive.

In January 1866 George was appointed headmaster of Liverpool College, and the family moved to the Dingle area. Butler continued to mourn for Eva, but focused her energy on helping others; she later wrote that she "became possessed with an irresistible urge to go forth and find some pain keener than my own, to meet with people more unhappy than myself. ... It was not difficult to find misery in Liverpool." She made regular visits to the 5000-strong workhouse at Brownlow Hill where she would sit with the women in the cellars—many of whom were prisoners—and pick oakum with them, praying alongside them and educating them on the Bible.

Again, the Butlers began providing shelter in their home for women, often prostitutes in the terminal stages of venereal disease. It soon became clear that there were more women in need than they could provide for, so Butler set up a hostel, with funds from wealthy locals. By Easter 1867 she had established a second, larger home, in which more appropriate work was provided, such as sewing and the manufacture of envelopes; the "Industrial Home", as she called it, was funded by the workhouse committee and local merchants.

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Butler constantly ampaigned for women's rights, including the right to the vote and to have a better education. In 1866 she was a signatory on a petition to amend the Reform Bill to widen the franchise to include women. The petition, which was supported by the MP and philosopher John Stuart Mill, was ignored.

Butler considered her hostels a temporary measure; she firmly believed that women would always struggle until they had the education to improve their prospects. In 1867, with the suffragist Anne Clough, she established the North of England Council for Promoting the Higher Education of Women, which aimed to raise the status of governesses and female teachers to that of a profession; She served as its president until 1873. A series of lectures, initially in towns in the north of England, began under James Stuart, a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. They hoped to lecture to 30 students – instead, 300 signed up. In 1868 Butler published her first pamphlet, "The Education and Employment of Women", in which she argued for access to higher education for women, and more equal access to a wider range of jobs. It was the first of 90 books and pamphlets she authored. She and Clough successfully petitioned the senate of the University of Cambridge to provide examinations for women; the Cambridge Higher Examination for women was introduced the following year. I have friends at the UoC now, and its crazy to think that without women like Butler they never would’ve had that right.

In Victorian Britain, marriage law was based on the legal doctrine of coverture, in which a woman's legal rights and obligations were subsumed by those of her husband upon their marriage. Legally, women had no separate legal existence, and all her property became her husband's. It was nigh impossible for a woman to initiate divorce. In April 1868 Butler and fellow suffragist Elizabeth Wolstenholme set up and became joint secretaries of the Married Women's Property Committee to pressure parliament into changing the law. Butler remained on the committee until the campaign was successful in achieving the passing into law of the Married Women's Property Act 1882.

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In 1869 Butler became aware of the Contagious Diseases Acts which had been introduced in 1864, 1866 and 1869 to regulate prostitution in an attempt to control the spread of venereal diseases, particularly in the British armed force. The Acts authorised police in certain areas to detain and inspect women considered to be prostitutes— with no evidence or justification needed save the policeman’s suspicions. If a magistrate agreed, women were given painful and intrusive genital examinations. If women were suffering from sexually transmitted diseases, they were held in a lock hospital until the condition was cured. If they refused to be examined or hospitalised they could be imprisoned, often with hard labour.

Units of plain-clothed policemen specialised in arresting suspected prostitutes, "hated for their surveillance and harassment of prostitutes and working-class women ... who they treated with little regard for their legal rights". Women who were subjected to the examination found their names and reputations ruined. Thus, ironically,  "the Acts had the effect of turning them to prostitution by barring respectable ways of life to them".

In September 1869, Wolstenholme and Butler met in Bristol to discuss what could be done about the Acts. The National Association for the Repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts was founded that October but women were not permitted to join (sigh). Consequently, Wolstenholme and Butler formed the Ladies National Association for the Repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts (LNA). The LNA published a Ladies Manifesto, which stated that the Acts were discriminatory on grounds of both sex and class; the Acts, it was claimed:

“not only deprived poor women of their constitutional rights and forced them to submit to a degrading internal examination, but they officially sanctioned a double standard of sexual morality, which justified male sexual access to a class of 'fallen' women and penalised women for engaging in the same vice as men.”

On 31 December 1869 the Ladies National Association published a statement in The Daily News that it had "been formed for the purposes of obtaining the repeal of these obnoxious Acts". Among the 124 signatories were the social theorist Harriet Martineau and the social reformer Florence Nightingale.

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In 1870, Butler toured Britain, travelling 3,700 miles to attend 99 meetings. She focused her attention on working-class family men, the majority of whom were outraged at the description Butler gave of the examination women were forced to undergo (a process she called “surgical or steel rape”). Although she persuaded many members of her audiences, she faced significant and dangerous opposition. Incidents she faced included being pelted with cow dung by pimps, having her windows smashed, and others threatening to burn down the building during her lectures. Despite the personal risk, Butler carried on.

At the 1870 Colchester parliamentary by-election, the LNA fielded a candidate against the Liberal Party candidate Sir Henry Storks, a supporter of the Acts. Butler held several local meetings during the campaign; during one, she was chased by a group of brothel owners. The presence of the LNA candidate split the Liberal vote and allowed the Conservative Party candidate to win the seat. Nonetheless, Butler considered this “somewhat of a turning-point in the history of our crusade". Stork's loss  prompted the Home Secretary, Henry Bruce, to launch a Royal Commission to examine the situation. One MP told Butler that

“Your manifesto has shaken us very badly in the House of Commons; a leading man in the House remarked to me, "We know how to manage any other opposition in the House or in the country, but this is very awkward for us—this revolt of the women. It is quite a new thing; what are we to do with such an opposition as this?"

The commission began work in early January 1871 and spent six months taking evidence. After Butler testified on 18 March, a member of the committee, Liberal MP Peter Rylands, stated: "I am not accustomed to religious phraseology, but I cannot give you an idea of the effect produced except by saying that the spirit of God was there". Nevertheless, the commission's report defended the one-sided nature of the legislation, saying "... there is no comparison to be made between prostitutes and the men who consort with them. With the one sex the offence is committed as a matter of gain; with the other it is an irregular indulgence of a natural impulse." (I might actually be sick). The report accepted the findings that the sexual health of men in the 18 areas covered by the Acts had improved. In relation to the compulsory examinations, the commission was swayed by the descriptions of "steel rape", and suggested it should be voluntary not compulsory. The commission heard significant evidence that many prostitutes were as young as 12 and recommended that the age of consent should be raised from 12 to 14 (woopty doo). Bruce took no action on the recommendations for six months.

In February 1872, Bruce finally proposed a bill that took some of the commission's recommendations, but widened the geographical scope from the 18 military centres to the whole of the UK. Although the LNA's initial stance was to accept some of the bill's clauses and try and change others, Butler rejected it in its entirety and published The New Era, a 56-page pamphlet attacking the legislation. Sadly, she lost many personal supporters because of her stance. The bill faced too much opposition from the parliamentary supporters of the Contagious Diseases Acts, and was withdrawn.

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Butler continued to face violent opposition – which was watched calmly by the Metropolitan police who did little to intervene.  In December 1872 Butler met the Prime Minister, William Gladstone, when he visited Liverpool College. Although he supported the aims of the LNA, he was politically unable to back the LNA publicly, and had supported Bruce's bill.

The fall of the Liberal government in 1874, and its replacement with Benjamin Disraeli's Conservative administration meant that the repeal campaign stalled; Butler called it a "year of discouragement" when there was "deep depression in the work". Although the LNA kept up the pressure, progress in persuading Liberal MPs to oppose the Contagious Diseases Acts was slow, and the government was unrelenting in its support for the Acts.

At a meeting of regional LNA branches in May, one speech focused on legislation in Europe and the LNA resolved to work with its sister organisations across Europe. In December 1874 Butler left for Paris, touring France, Italy and Switzerland, where she met with local pressure groups and civic authorities. As in Britain, she encountered strong support from feminist groups, but hostility from the authorities. She returned from her travels at the end of February 1875.

As a result of her experiences, in March 1875 Butler formed the British and Continental Federation for the Abolition of Prostitution (later renamed the International Abolitionist Federation), an organisation that campaigned against state regulation of prostitution and for "the abolition of female slavery and the elevation of public morality among men" (LOL, still waiting two centuries later). The Liberal MP James Stansfeld—who wished to repeal the Acts—became the federation's first general secretary; Butler became joint secretary.

In 1878 Josephine wrote a biography of Catherine of Siena, which historians argue provided "historical justification for her own political activism". Her biographer, Helen Mathers, believes that "in emphasising that she and Catherine were born to be leaders, of both men and women, ... [Butler] made a profound contribution to feminism".

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Disraeli's Conservative government lost the general election of 1880 and was replaced by Gladstone's second ministry, a high proportion of which wanted to repeal the Contagious Diseases Acts. As Prime Minister, Gladstone had the power to nominate candidates to vacant positions within the Church and, in June 1882, he offered George Butler the position of canon of Winchester Cathedral. George had been considering retirement, but he and Josephine were concerned about their finances, as much of their income had been spent on the LNA and other causes Josephine supported. George accepted the appointment, and they moved into a grace and favour home near the cathedral. Josephine Butler set up another hostel for women near their home. (We stan a supportive, feminist husband!)

Political pressure from Liberal backbenchers, particularly Joseph Chamberlain and Charles Hopwood, led to increasing opposition to the Acts. In February 1883 Hopwood tabled a resolution in parliament: "That this House disapproves of the compulsory examination of women under the Contagious Diseases Acts", which was debated in April. MPs voted by a majority of 72 to suspend the inspections; three years later the Acts were formally repealed.

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Around 1879, Butler became aware of the slave trade of young women and children from England to mainland Europe. Young girls were considered "fair game”, as they were legally allowed to become prostitutes aged 13. After playing a minor role in starting an investigation into an accusation of trafficking, Butler became active in the campaign in May 1880, and wrote to The Shield that "the official houses of prostitution in Brussels are crowded with English minor girls", and that in one house "there are immured little children, English girls of from twelve to fifteen years of age ... stolen, kidnapped, betrayed, got from English country villages by every artifice and sold to these human shambles".

She visited Brussels where she met the mayor and local councillors and made allegations against the head of the Belgian Police des Mœurs and his deputy. After the meeting she was contacted by a detective who confirmed that the senior members of the Police des Mœurs were guilty of collusion with brothel keepers. She returned home and filed a deposition containing a copy of the statement from the detective and sent them to the Procureur du Roi (Chief Prosecutor) and the British Home Secretary. Following an investigation in Belgium, the head of the Police des Mœurs was removed from office, and his deputy was put on trial alongside 12 brothel owners; all were imprisoned for their roles in the trade #justice.

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In 1885, Butler met Florence Soper Booth, the daughter-in-law of Salvation Army founder, William Booth. Booth introduced Butler to a campaign to expose child prostitution in Britain and its associated trade. Along with Booth, Benjamin Scott the City Chamberlain and several supporters from the LNA, she persuaded the campaigning editor of The Pall Mall Gazette, William Thomas Stead, to help their cause.

Stead controversially decided that the best way to prove that the purchase of young girls for prostitution took place in London, was to buy a girl himself. Butler introduced him to a former prostitute and brothel owner who was staying in her hostel. From a slum in Marylebone, Stead purchased a 13-year-old girl from her mother for £5, and took her to France. In July 1885 Stead began the publication of a series of articles entitled "The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon", exposing the extent of child prostitution in London. In the first article—which covered six pages of the Gazette—Stead recounted an interview he had with Howard Vincent, the head of the Criminal Investigation Department:

"But", I said in amazement, "then do you mean to tell me that in very truth actual rapes, in the legal sense of the word, are constantly being perpetrated in London on unwilling virgins, purveyed and procured to rich men at so much a head by keepers of brothels?" "Certainly", said he, "there is not a doubt of it." "Why", I exclaimed, "the very thought is enough to raise hell." "It is true", he said; "and although it ought to raise hell, it does not even raise the neighbours."

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On 16 July—ten days after Stead’s article was published—Butler gave a speech at a meeting at London's Exeter Hall calling for increased protection for the young and the raising of the age of consent. The following day she and George left for a holiday in Switzerland and France. In their absence, a parliamentary bill from 1883 dealing with the age of consent was re-debated by MPs; the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885 was passed on 14 August 1885. The Act raised the age of consent from 13 to 16 years of age (which it remains today), while the procurement of girls for prostitution by administering drugs, intimidation or fraud was made a criminal offence, as was the abduction of a girl under 18 for purposes of carnal knowledge (crazy that this had to be MADE illegal, like wtf). The police investigated Stead's purchase, and Butler was forced to cut her holiday short to return for questioning. Although she avoided all charges, Stead was imprisoned for three months.

The passing of the Criminal Law Amendment Act led to the formation of purity societies, such as the White Cross Army, whose aims were to force the closure of brothels through prosecution. The societies widened their remit to suppress what they considered indecent literature—including information on birth control—and the entertainment provided by the music halls. Butler criticised these purity societies because of their "fatuous belief that you can oblige human beings to be moral by force, and in so doing that you may in some way promote social purity". Her warnings went unheeded by other suffragists, and some, such as Millicent Fawcett continued to combine their activities in the feminist movement with the work for the purity societies.

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Although the Contagious Diseases Acts had been repealed in the UK, the equivalent legislation remained active in the British Raj in India, where prostitutes near the British cantonments were subjected to regular forced examinations. The relevant law was contained in the Special Cantonments Acts which had been put on to a practical footing by Major-General Edward Chapman, who issued standing orders for the inspection of prostitutes, and the provision of "a sufficient number of women, to take care that they are sufficiently attractive [*Puke*], to provide them with proper houses" .

Butler began a new campaign to have the legislation repealed, comparing the girls to slaves. After the campaign put pressure on MPs, the widespread publication of Chapman's orders led to what Mathers describes as "outrage across Britain". In June 1888 the House of Commons passed a unanimous resolution repealing the legislation, and the Indian government was ordered to cancel the Acts. To circumvent the order, the India Office advised the Viceroy of India to instigate new legislation ensuring that prostitutes suspected of carrying contagious diseases had to undergo an examination or face expulsion from the cantonment. I could write a whole book on the damage the British Raj did to Indian women but I think this is a fitting example.

Towards the end of the 1880s George's health began to decline, and Butler spent increasing time caring for him. They holidayed in Naples in 1889, but George contracted influenza in the 1889–90 pandemic. They returned to Britain but George died on 14 March 1890. Butler suspended campaigning and moved to Wimbledon to stay with her eldest son and his family.

Butler, now aged 62, felt she was too old to travel to India, but two American supporters visited on her behalf and spent four months building a report showing that the lock hospitals, compulsory examination and use of underage prostitutes—some as young as 11—were all continuing to operate. The campaign in Britain pushed again for changes, and Butler spoke at meetings, published pamphlets and wrote to missionaries in India.

Although many of Butler's friends and supporters spoke out against British Imperial Policy, Butler did not. She wrote that because of the work Britain had undertaken in making slavery illegal, "[w]ith all her faults, looked at from God's point of view, England is the best, and the least guilty of the nations" [100% debatable, but ok]. Disappointingly, during the Second Boer War (1899–1902), Butler published Native Races and the War (1900), in which she supported British action and its imperialist policy. However, in the book she took a strong line against the casual racism inherent in her countrymen's dealings with foreigners, writing:

“Great Britain will in future be judged, condemned or justified, according to her treatment of those innumerable, coloured races, heathen or partly Christianized, over whom her rule extends ... Race prejudice is a poison which will have to be cast out if the world is ever to be Christianized, and if Great Britain is to maintain the high and responsible place among the nations which has been given to her.” Again, not much change in the passing centuries.

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From 1901 Butler began to retire from public life, resigning her positions in the campaign organisations and spending more time with her family. In 1903 she returned to live in Northumberland. She died at home on 30th December 1906.

In 1907 Josephine Butler's name was added to the south side of the Reformers' Memorial in Kensal Green Cemetery, London. The memorial was erected for those "who had defied custom and interest for the sake of conscience and public good".

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In 1915 the LNA merged with the International Abolitionist Federation to form the Association of Moral and Social Hygiene, which changed its name to the Josephine Butler Society in 1953. The society still operates, continuing to campaign for the protection of prostitutes and provide "protection for women and children who are criminally detained, violently abused or exploited by others who profit from their prostitution".

Butler was not only a staunch feminist but a passionate Christian, whose favourite phrase was "God and one woman make a majority". According to her biographer Walkowitz, Butler "pushed liberal feminism in new directions, developing theories and methods of political agitation that directly affected future campaigns for the emancipation of women". She developed new approaches to campaigning and moved the debate beyond discussions in middle-class houses to the public forum, bringing into the political debate women who had never been involved before. Butler's campaigning, says Walkowitz, "not only reshaped gender, class, and sexual subjectivities in late Victorian Britain but also informed national political history and state-building".

Numerous historians consider the success of the campaign to repeal the Contagious Diseases Acts to be a milestone in the history of female emancipation. According to the political historian Margaret Hamilton, the campaign showed that "attitudes toward women were changing". The feminist scholar Sheila Jeffreys says that Butler is "one of the bravest and most imaginative feminists in history", while Millicent Fawcett wrote that she was "convinced that ... [Butler] should take the rank of the most distinguished Englishwoman of the nineteenth century". Her unnamed obituarist in The Daily News considered that Butler's namewill always rank amongst the noblest of the social reformers, the fruit of whose labours is the highest inheritance that we have. She fought with enormous courage and self-sacrifice in a battlefield where she was subjected to the fiercest  antagonism ... She never faltered in her task, and it is to her in supreme that the English statute book owes the removal of one of the greatest blots that ever defaced it. Her victory marked one of the great stages of progress of woman to that equality of treatment which is the final test of a nation's civilization.”

I couldn’t agree more. I learned about Josephine in a Christian Philanthropy course during my undergrad and I’ve loved her ever since. Even by today’s standards her views are incredibly progressive and her courage and justice is an inspiration to me as much today as it has been to women throughout the Victorian ages and beyond.