I am delighted to see so many people gathered here in this venerable building, the Palace of Westminster. I wanted to hold the launch of my book about Josephine Butler here, because this place is the most closely associated with her battle to repeal the Contagious Diseases Acts, a battle that lasted from to During those years, in the House of Commons, there were regular debates on the repeal of the Acts.
Josephine watched from the Ladies Gallery on several occasions as MPs voted, always to keep the Acts. The debates became especially demoralising when the Conservatives were in power, since almost all Conservative MPs supported the Acts. The House of Commons gave up its attempts to exclude ladies from the debates! Finally, Josephine was in the Ladies Gallery on April 20 when the tide had turned. The Liberals were in government and many Liberal MPs had been persuaded by her campaign.
They saw that the Acts were immoral and unacceptable and were prepared to vote against them. Never can I forget the expression on the faces of our M. Then we ran quickly down from the gallery and met a number of our friends coming out from Westminster Hall. The CD Acts were suspended by a majority of This was the work of a woman who had no vote herself, but who, together with her supporters, had wielded incredible moral power within the House of Commons. The Acts were repealed altogether three years later.
It was her willingness to speak out, in public, which made the difference. I first heard about Josephine Butler in an undergraduate lecture when I was a history student at Sheffield University. I was really impressed to hear about what she achieved. Josephine Butler lived in the Victorian period when women were supposed to stay at home and look after their families. So I was surprised to hear that Josephine Butler had led a political campaign and fought for years to have a law repealed that she thought was unjust.
And I was even more surprised to discover that this law concerned prostitutes. But, as we know, she refused to ignore them and she actually changed their lives for the better.
