The Victorian Christian who fought for the rights of prostitutes

Josephine Butler seems in many ways to be a woman before her time, a model for today’s feminists, anachronistically living in the Victorian era. That’s certainly how she is often perceived by the modern left. She is even criticised for being too feminist by critics of the movement, who react against some of its extremes.

It is true that she boldly and fearlessly campaigned to end unjust laws that forced prostitutes to undergo degrading ‘checks’ for sexually transmitted diseases – effectively state-sanctioned sexual assault. She was not afraid of the subject matter, which many thought shameful at the time. She cared deeply about the affected women, and privately tried to help women to escape sex work, even inviting them to live with her to this end.

Yet in many ways she was very unlike modern feminists, as she was deeply Christian and conservative, and promoted faith and chastity as the solution to social problems such as prostitution. This was not just due to the influence of the era, as there were other more morally liberal campaigners. It was her own personal conviction.

Born in 1828 and passing away in 1906, she knew little else than the reign of Queen Victoria (1837-1901). It’s a period of history that has plenty of unfavourable stereotypes: repressed, moralistic, hypocritical, and deeply religious, for example.

In fact it was a fascinating time of incredible social change and deep Christian concern, and there were many believers who worked hard for a better world, Josephine included.

Biographer Rod Garner, in Josephine Butler: a guide to her life, faith and social action, describes her as: “a woman who brought courage and an indomitable will to a long struggle on behalf of the ‘poor, the weak and the friendless.’ She believed that God was on their side and that they should not be left to perish as outcasts in a society that had held them to be of little or no account. She did all this in an attitude of prayer… she was a Christian with a deep love for Christ but no great love for organised religion.” 

For this work, she had a genuine partner in George, her devout husband who desired a “perfectly equal union” in their marriage. His ordained work as a teacher would complement her social outreach.

With his full support, she began to work with poor women in workhouses – the desperate institutions where people who could not afford to live were forced to exist in order to get board and food. When she invited some of the women to live with her, it was to try and help them get on their feet without resorting to prostitution. Together the couple began a “House of rest,” a refuge for them. She campaigned for better wages for women, who would suffer terribly if they did not have a husband or father to support them, due to lower pay.

However, what she became most known for was her work to oppose the ‘Contagious Diseases Acts’ which first came into force in 1864, not to be repealed until two decades later. The legislation was conceived to try to quell an outbreak of venereal disease, which had spread in ports where men in the military would use sex workers. The legislation gave police the power to arrest and force women to be examined. If evidence of disease was discovered, they could be confined to a ‘lock hospital’ until cured.

Many men and women of the time – including Florence Nightingale – considered the laws unjust, especially as men were not subject to the same maltreatment. May of these protesters came from the conservative standpoint that men should control their sex drives and that a prostitute was not an acceptable means by which such urges could be satisfied.

At a time when prostitution was effectively regulated by the government, Josephine started “British and Continental Federation for the Abolition of Prostitution” that campaigned for the end of sex work and trafficking, or “the abolition of female slavery and the elevation of public morality among men”.

Butler was appalled to discover that child prostitution was common, and that English girls were being sold to continental Europe for sex, and she fought this too. She contributed to the arrest of brothel owners and corrupt police in Belgium who were involved in this horrendous trade.

As well as conservative Christianity, she had other beliefs that would be out of favour with many modern feminists. For example, she did not condemn colonialism outright, because she believed that the British were working to improve conditions in the affected countries. “With all her faults, looked at from God’s point of view, England is the best, and the least guilty of the nations,” she wrote in her work Native races and the war. In it, she also condemned the use of the ‘n’ word, and wrote a prescient statement:

“It is my deep conviction that 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, or who, beyond the sphere of her rule, claim her sympathy and help as a Christian and civilizing power to whom a great trust has been committed … 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.”

Though best known for her social campaigning, she also wrote many books, mostly on social issues, but also biographies such as of Saint Catherine of Siena. Garner believes Butler was drawn to this woman due to shared concerns: contemplative prayer, concern for the state of society and a desire for reform.

Her writings describe a deep and personal faith. She ‘gave whole nights to prayer… it was a desire to know God and my relation to Him’, according to one letter. And her work was also supported by public devotion:

“Throughout the campaign, Butler prayed with women on the streets, and taught others to do the same,” concludes liberal Christian magazine Plough Quarterly. “She prayed with leaders from every political party and every religious denomination. She formed networks of prayer that connected those who lacked social and political agency with those who held great power.”

Like William Wilberforce and other social campaigners, a deep and orthodox Christian faith was combined with tireless social action and work towards justice – as well as socially conservative beliefs. The combination appears unusual to us, as we are used to the modern “culture wars” between social conservatives and progressives. But the old ways produced astonishing results, as Butler’s life demonstrates.

Heather Tomlinson is a freelance Christian writer. Find her at www.heathertomlinson.substack.com or on twitter @heathertomli