Josephine Butler: Victorian Social Reformer & Feminist
Josephine Butler campaigned for education and justice for women. She was ahead of her time but remains a largely unknown figure.
The Josephine Butler Memorial Trust, based in Liverpool, seeks to promote awareness of Josephine Butler and how her Christian faith and commitment to service drove her in her social justice campaigns.
The Trust is a Charity registered in England and Wales. Charity Number: 220923.
Josephine Butler: Ahead of her Age
Josephine was an unconventional Christian. She found much peace in prayer but strongly disliked the dark shadow of institutional Christianity when it failed the neglected poor. Josephine accompanied her husband to Oxford University but she was not allowed to study there as women were excluded from university education at that time. While in Oxford Josephine was exposed to condescending attitudes towards women from men. It was a revelation to her that men would fulfil their sexual pleasures with prostitutes and treat them in a disrespectful manner afterwards. This is something that did not sit well with her and she started working with social outcasts to support the victims of abuse and violence. Focussing her energies on their needs, her own mental and physical health plummeted.
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“Josephine Butler is considered to be the most beautiful woman in the world; she is very clever and a great speaker; but she has done herself a great deal of harm by violently taking up a subject which had better be left alone, by ladies at any rate”
- Prince Leopold, Son-in-Law of Queen Victoria
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