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,
Butler's campaigns for women's rights shook Victorian society to its
core and became a force for change that has shaped modern Britain.
As well as campaigning for women's suffrage and for married women's
property rights she was a tireless advocate of women's 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
Butler's 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.