Prostitution and Victorian Society
Women, Class, and the State

A study of alliances between prostitutes and femminists and their clashes with medical authorities and police.

Judith R. Walkowitz (Author)

9780521270649, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 29 October 1982

360 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 2 cm, 0.48 kg

'Walkowitz reveals the complexity of the social, economic, moral, religious and political (including feminist) issues that were entwined in the CD controversy through a virtuoso analysis. Walkowitz exposes the void that still exists in the historical explanation of changes in ideas and policies on sexual and social relations of the sexes that have transpired since late Victorian times. The exposure is a worthy challenge to a social historian who can match Walkowitz's gifts in research and analysis.' The American Historical Review

The state regulation of prostitution, as established under the Contagious Diseases Acts of 1864, 1866 and 1869, and the successful campaign for the repeal of the Acts, provide the framework for this study of alliances between prostitutes and feminists and their clashes with medical authorities and police. Prostitution and Victorian Society makes a major contribution to women's history, working-class history, and the social history of medicine and politics. It demonstrates how feminists and others mobilized over sexual questions, how public discourse on prostitution redefined sexuality in the late nineteenth century, and how the state helped to recast definitions of social deviance.

Preface
Introduction
Part I. Prostitution, Social Science and Venereal Disease: 1. The common prostitute in Victorian Britain
2. Social science and the great social evil
3. Venereal disease
Part II. The Contagious Diseases Acts, Regulationists and Repealers: 4. The Contagious Diseases Acts and their advocates
5. The repeal campaign
6. The leadership of the Ladies' National Association
7. Class and gender conflict within the repeal movement
Part III. Two Case Studies: Plymouth and Southampton under the Contagious Diseases Acts: 8. Plymouth and Southampton under the Contagious Diseases Acts
9. The repeal campaign in Plymouth and Southampton 1870–4
10. The making of an outcast group: prostitutes and working women in Plymouth and Southampton
11. The hospitals
12. The local repeal campaign, 1874–86
Epilog
Notes
Selected bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900 [HBLL], British & Irish history [HBJD1]