Photo by H S Mendelssohn of Newcastle, Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons

• WOMEN'S RIGHTS ACTIVIST
• Married to a college professor who was also an Anglican clergyman, the two were extremely religious, believing their activist work was a service to Christ
• Bore four children, but in 1864 her only daughter died in childhood when she fell from a staircase
• Understandably, her daughter's death had a profound effect on Butler, and she focused her efforts on helping women in need, especially female prisoners and workers
• Began caring for poverty-stricken and terminally ill former sex workers in her own home
• In 1869 she took lead of the movement to repeal the Contagious Diseases Acts, which was meant to prevent the spread of venereal disease but resulted in police having absolute authority to indiscriminately detain women suspected of prostitution, force them to undergo an invasive medical exam, and hold them in the hospital if they were found to be suffering from a venereal disease
• Butler made the case that these laws not only unfairly punished women while leaving men free of blame, but that they were also unconstitutional because they removed the women's rights to an appeal or trial
• Unafraid to speak in public on subjects that were very firmly taboo in Victorian England (like women's sexuality), Butler was shunned by much of society, and sometimes even assaulted by mobs
• After almost twenty years of tireless work, the acts were finally repealed in 1886
• Also campaigned for women's suffrage, better education, and improved labor rights, writing and publishing pamphlets, and serving as president of the North England Council for Promoting the Higher Education of Women

Bibliography: Walker, Pamela J. “Butler, Josephine.” The Oxford Encyclopedia of Women in World History, Oxford University Press, 2008, p. 268-269.

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