| Administrative History | Josephine Elizabeth Butler, nee Grey (13 April 1828-30 December 1906) was born to a prosperous and progressive Northumbrian family, whose high social standing, religious activities and wide intellectual contacts formed the background to a life of campaigning for the treatment of men and women as individuals equally deserving of respect, and bound by the same moral standards. The feminist concerns and devout Christianity which she shared with her husband, the Rev George Butler, informed both her work in support of the higher education of women, and her leadership of the campaign for the repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts (1864-1869) in Britain and its colonies. After the repeal of the Acts in April 1886, she continued her opposition to the official regulation of prostitution in Europe and America through her leading role in the International Federation for the Abolition of State Regulation of Vice (founded 1875). Information taken from The University of Liverpool, Special Collections, where the Josephine Butler collection is held. http://sca.lib.liv.ac.uk/collections/colldescs/butler.html |