Access to the full content is only available to members of institutions that have purchased access. If you belong to such an institution, please log in or find out more about how to order.


Cover of Prostitution and Victorian Social Reform

Prostitution and Victorian Social Reform

  • Published: 26 Jun 2013
  • DOI: 10.4324/9780203104040
  • Print ISBN: 9780415623605
  • eBook ISBN: 9780203104040

In the mid-nineteenth century many parts of England and Wales were still subjected to a system of regulated prostitution which, by identifying and detaining for treatment infected prostitutes, aimed to protect members of the armed forces (94 per cent of whom were forbidden to marry) from venereal diseases.

The coercive nature of the Contagious Diseases Acts and the double standard which allowed the continuance of prostitution on the ground that the prostitute 'herself the supreme type of vice, she is ultimately the most efficient guardian of virtue', aroused the ire of many reformers, not only women’s rights campaigners.

Paul McHugh analyses the social composition of the different repeal and reform movements – the liberal reformists, the passionate struggle of the charismatic Josephine Butler, the Tory reformers whose achievement was in the improvement of preventative medicine, and finally the Social Purity movement of the 1880s which favoured a coercive approach. This is a fascinating study of ideals and principles in action, of pressure-group strategy, and of individual leaders in the repeal movement’s sixteen year progress to victory.

The book was originally publised in 1980.

Contents

  • content locked
    Front Matter
  • content locked
    1
    Introduction
  • content locked
    2
    Regulating Prostitution
  • content locked
    3
    The Attack on the Acts Launched
  • content locked
    4
    Defeat and Regrouping
  • content locked
    5
    The Repeal Campaign in Action — Organisation and Methods
  • content locked
    6
    The Role of Women in the Repeal Movement
  • content locked
    7
    Religion and the Repeal Campaign
  • content locked
    8
    The Liberal Strategy
  • content locked
    9
    Political Connections and Alliances in the Repeal Campaign
  • content locked
    10
    Conclusion
  • content locked
    Back Matter