Prostitution and Victorian Society: Women, Class, and the State

by Judith R. Walkowitz

Book Overview

The state regulation of prostitution, as established under the Contagious Diseases Acts of 1864, 1866 and 1869, and the successful campaign for the repeal of the Acts, provide the framework for this study of alliances between prostitutes and feminists and their clashes with medical authorities and police. Prostitution and Victorian Society makes a major contribution to women's history, working-class history, and the social history of medicine and...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0521270642
• ISBN13: 9780521270649
• Release Date: October 1982
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Length: 360 Pages
• Weight: 1.12 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

worth a read

This is an excellent book when it is discussing lower class women reactions to dominance by men and Middle Class Victorian attitudes toward the lower classes. The author makes the point that prostitution was often a job of short duration for women who would presumably move on to other things; marriage, working class occupations, domestic help. It gets dull and dissertation like when discussing the doings of the various parties arrayed against each other over the Contagious Disease Act, which sought to regulate venereal disease amongst prostitutes. I wish it could be chopped up in two big sections. In any case, chapters 1, 2, 8, 10 would suffice for the first view. Needless to say, there is no prurient interest in this book of social history on the treatment of lower class women.