Josephine Butler and her Role in the Campaign for the Repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts of 1864, 1866 and 1869.

In the late 1860s there was a public outcry over the Contagious Diseases Acts. Foremost amongst those calling for the repeal of these Acts was Josephine Butler. It was largely due to Josephine's tireless determination that the repeal campaign achieved the success it did.

In the late 1860s there was a public outcry in Britain over the Contagious Diseases Acts. Foremost amongst those calling for the repeal of these Acts was Josephine Butler, who believed that prostitution "epitomized man's inhumanity to woman" and therefore found "the institutionalisation of such a system insupportable." It was largely due to Josephine's tireless determination that the Repeal Campaign achieved the success it did.

Josephine's Butler's leadership of the Repeal campaign took extreme courage, in an age when sexuality was considered to be a taboo subject. At that time it was almost unheard of for a woman to stand before a mixed audience and talk of the subjects, which she thought it vital to be discussed.

Josephine was a pioneering figure who acted as an example to other women who wanted to become more actively involved in campaigns pressing for economic, legal or political reform. Although challenging the idea of the separate spheres herself, she never denigrated the idea that the home was a place of virtue. "I believe that the Home is the nursery of all virtue, the fountainhead of all true affection and the main source of the strength of our nation".1 However, Josephine protested that this home could not be idealised. A woman must be given the opportunity to work if she was not to sink to the levels of deprivation which Josephine believed to be the cause of prostitution.