Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Josephine Butler
-
Standard Name: Butler, Josephine
Birth Name: Josephine Elizabeth Grey
Married Name: Josephine Elizabeth Butler
Used Form: an English mother
Used Form: the author of the Memoir of John Grey of Dilston
Social reformer JB
is primarily remembered for her unrelenting efforts in the campaign against the Contagious Diseases Acts during the second half of the nineteenth century. She was both a gifted orator and a prolific writer on the many causes she espoused. Author of nearly forty pamphlets, she also composed books of political and personal writings: essays, biographies of people whose lives influenced her own, and an autobiography. Almost all of her writings address questions of social and political import—the repeal campaign, the double sexual standard, women's rights, and religious issues.
Petrie, Glen. A Singular Iniquity: The Campaigns of Josephine Butler. Macmillan.
Through her editorship of the magazine, UM
drew attention to issues such as single motherhood, women struggling on meagre incomes, and unemployment among domestic workers. This is the age of woman: what man has done...
Theme or Topic Treated in Text
Sara Maitland
This genre seems almost impossible in the late twentieth century, but the authors believe that saints today are potentially spiritual resources whose presences through the traces they have left behind in the minds of the...
Textual Features
Q. D. Leavis
QDL
's review constitutes a personal and professional attack on Woolf, based primarily on three fronts: education, domesticity, and class. A footnote asserts that Woolf commenting on women's institutional education is voicing an opinion on...
Anthologization
Sophia Jex-Blake
At the request of her publisher Macmillan, SJB
contributed an essay on Medicine as a Profession for Women to Josephine Butler
's Woman's Work and Woman's Culture. She was friendly with Butler and...
Textual Production
Sophia Jex-Blake
While still a student at Edinburgh
, SJB
published, and dedicated to her American mentor Dr Lucy SewallMedical Women: Two Essays: i.e. Medicine as a Profession for Women (a revised version of her...
Reception
Sophia Jex-Blake
This book was well received by most American universities, as it represented them in a favourable light compared to the more segregated British ones. The publisher Macmillan
thought highly enough of SJB
's work to...
Theme or Topic Treated in Text
Geraldine Jewsbury
GJ
regularly voiced her opinions on women's economic and professional independence. Her 1869 review of Josephine Butler
's Woman's Work and Woman's Culture: A Series of Essays describes women's desire to be taught thoroughly, to...
Textual Features
Mary Catherine Hume
Drawing on her personal experiences as a mother, she raises the question of vaccination. She explains, It was not till, . . . I stood by to see my own baby vaccinated, that the preposterous...
One of DG
's most popular works appeared, a volume of religious essays titled The Patience of Hope, dedicated to Josephine Butler
; she referred to herself allusively as the author of A Present...
Friends, Associates
Dora Greenwell
In Lancashire she became friendly with Josephine Butler
.
Bett, Henry. Dora Greenwell. Epworth Press.
16
Dorling, William. Memoirs of Dora Greenwell. James Clarke.
32
Education
Sarah Grand
Her attendance was made possible by a bequest left to her by a great-aunt.
Grand, Sarah. “Introduction; Chronology”. Sex, Social Purity and Sarah Grand: Volume 2, edited by Stephanie Forward, Routledge, pp. 1 - 12; 13.
13
SG
was not happy at either school, and she describes her experience there as one of deadly dulness.
Grand, Sarah. Sex, Social Purity and Sarah Grand: Volume 1. Editor Heilmann, Ann, Routledge.
194
politics
Sarah Grand
From the time she was fifteen, SG
had supported Josephine Butler
's crusade against the Contagious Diseases Acts of 1864, 1866, and 1869. (She admired Butler but never met her.) The medical knowledge SG
gleaned...
Occupation
Sarah Grand
When the mayor, Cedric Chivers, grew increasingly ill in 1928-9, SG
took over most of the mayor's civic duties. For example, in June 1928 she presided over a meeting for the Social Hygiene Council
at...
Timeline
15 October 1874: James Stansfeld gave a speech at Bristol...
Building item
15 October 1874
James Stansfeld
gave a speech at Bristol strongly in favour of the repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts.
August 1885: The most powerful social purity organization,...
May 1888: Josephine Butler edited, in London, the first...
Building item
May 1888
Josephine Butler
edited, in London, the first issue of The Dawn: An Occasional/Quarterly/ Sketch of the Progress of the Work of the British, Continental and General Federation for the Abolition of the State Regulation...
October 1892: F. A. Atkins edited the first issue of The...
Building item
October 1892
F. A. Atkins
edited the first issue of The Young Woman, a magazine for girls interested in religion, published in London.
October 1896: The Dawn, a quarterly edited by Josephine...
Building item
October 1896
The Dawn, a quarterly edited by Josephine Butler
, ceased publication in London.
July 1898: The Pioneer, the organ of the Social Purity...
August 1915: The Young Woman, a monthly, ended publication...
Writing climate item
August 1915
The Young Woman, a monthly, ended publication in London.
November 1970: The Shield ended publication in London....
Building item
November 1970
The Shield ended publication in London.
Earlier 1981: Merseyside county councillor Margaret Simey,...
Building item
Earlier 1981
Merseyside county councillor Margaret Simey
, already an activist on behalf of poor communities, became chairman of the Liverpool police authority not long before the Toxteth race riots broke out.
Texts
Butler, Josephine. Recollections of George Butler. J. W. Arrowsmith, 1892.
Butler, Josephine. Social Purity. Morgan and Scott, 1879.
Butler, Josephine. The Constitution Violated. Edmonston and Douglas, 1871.
Butler, Josephine. The Constitution Violated. Cambridge University Press, 2010, http://www.cambridge.org/series/sSeries.asp?code=CLOR.
Butler, Josephine, editor. The Dawn. F. Burfoot.
Butler, Josephine. The Education and Employment of Women. T. Brakell, 1868.
Butler, Josephine. “The Education and Employment of Women, 1868”. Indiana University: Victorian Women Writers Project.
Cobbe, Frances Power. “The Final Cause of Woman”. Woman’s Work and Woman’s Culture, edited by Josephine Butler, Macmillan, 1869, pp. 1-26.
Butler, Josephine. The Hour Before the Dawn. Trübner, 1876.
Ladies’ National Association for the Repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts, et al. “The Ladies’ Appeal and Protest”. Daily News.
Butler, Josephine. The Lady of Shunem. H. Marshall and Son, 1894.
Butler, Josephine. The New Abolitionists. Dyer Brothers, 1876.
Butler, Josephine. The New Era. T. Brakell, 1872.
Butler, Josephine. “The New Godiva. A Dialogue, 1888”. Indiana University: Victorian Women Writers Project.
Butler, Josephine. The Principles of the Abolitionists. Dyer Brothers, 1885.
Butler, Josephine, editor. The Storm-Bell. F. Burfoot.
Butler, Josephine, and James Stuart. The Voice of One Crying in the Wilderness. Translator Airy, Osmund, J. W. Arrowsmith, 1913.
Butler, Josephine. “Times: Obituary Notice of Mrs. Butler”. Personal Reminiscences of a Great Crusade, Hyperion Press, 1989, p. vii - x.
Butler, Josephine. Truth Before Everything. Pewtress, 1897.
Butler, Josephine. “Truth Before Everything, 1897”. Indiana University: Victorian Women Writers Project.
Butler, Josephine. Une voix dans le desert. Sandoz, 1875.
Butler, Josephine, editor. Woman’s Work and Woman’s Culture. Macmillan, 1869.
Butler, Josephine, editor. Woman’s Work and Woman’s Culture. Cambridge University Press, 2010, http://www.cambridge.org/series/sSeries.asp?code=CLOR.