Josephine Butler

When Josephine Butler died in 1906, she was declared by Millicent Fawcett to have been the most distinguished Englishwoman of the nineteenth century. With impassioned speeches and fiery writing, Butlers campaigns for womens rights shook Victorian society to its core and became a force for change that has shaped modern Britain. As well as campaigning for womens suffrage and for married womens property rights she was a tireless advocate of womens access to higher education and of equality in the workplace. Her greatest achievement was to change social attitudes to women and children forced into prostitution, and to expose the sex-trafficking business both of which resulted in new, more humane legislation. But how did the physically frail wife of a schoolmaster become a leading social reformer? In this brief introduction Jane Robinson explores Butlers fascinating life and describes how her progressive politics, her anger at injustice and her passionate Christianity combined to create a vibrant legacy that lasts to this day.